{"id":59685,"date":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-chemistry-student-earns-national-research-prize-for-nano-scale-work-with-gold-plating\/"},"modified":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","slug":"uri-chemistry-student-earns-national-research-prize-for-nano-scale-work-with-gold-plating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/uri-chemistry-student-earns-national-research-prize-for-nano-scale-work-with-gold-plating\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 chemistry student earns national research prize for nano-scale work with gold plating"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNorth Smithfield resident is second 溏心vlog免费B站 student to win Eastern Analytical Symposium award<\/b><\/p>\n


\nKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 8, 2015 \u2014 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Caitlin Masterson is one of four national recipients of a distinguished undergraduate research award, which was presented at the 2014 Eastern Analytical Symposium, a prestigious conference for analytical chemists. <\/p>\n


\nShe presented her work Nov. 18 at the conference in Somerset, N.J.<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Assistant Professor Jason Dwyer nominated Masterson (North Smithfield) for the award in recognition of her valuable contributions to a challenging research project.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cCaitlin is very focused and rigorous in her approach to her work,\u201d Dwyer said. \u201cThis allowed her to make contributions to the project very early on. She asked insightful questions that showed she was intellectually engaged in the process of scientific discovery \u2014 at every step, she was thinking about what she was doing, and why.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nWhat Masterson was doing was helping to develop a new technique for gold-plating silicon nitride, which Dwyer\u2019s group uses to create chemical sensors and biomedical diagnostic devices. The senior chemistry major focused on modifying the way the atoms were clustered in the gold film, which changes its sensing capabilities.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to experience a breakthrough,\u201d Masterson said. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing something and it doesn\u2019t work, you have to find new ways to work around it and not get discouraged. But there\u2019s nothing quite like it when you finally get it to work and you can explain the chemistry behind it.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nDwyer said the new process holds many real-world applications that give the metal coating a value far beyond its luster. The ability to gold-coat silicon nitride allows the 溏心vlog免费B站 research group to chemically protect the surface of sensitive biomedical diagnostic instruments and to craft high-performance electrical and optical sensors for a wide range of applications.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cAncient alchemists wanted gold for its monetary value,\u201d Dwyer said. \u201cWe are far more concerned about the value it holds when used to improve the performance of a medical diagnostic device, or an environmental sensor monitoring water quality.\u201d The experience has sparked Masterson\u2019s intellectual curiosity and she has decided to pursue further research in pure and applied chemistry by attending graduate school. She has applied to 溏心vlog免费B站. <\/p>\n


\nMasterson is the second 溏心vlog免费B站 student to earn the award. Cameron Frament (\u201912) won the prize in 2012. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic when 溏心vlog免费B站 students get out of the classroom and into the research lab, work independently, and as part of a team, to produce something of value,\u201d Dwyer said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s nice to see Caitlin produced something of value not just in my eyes, but in the eyes of national experts.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe work was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award to Dwyer, and by an NSF EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Smithfield resident is second 溏心vlog免费B站 student to win Eastern Analytical Symposium award KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 8, 2015 \u2014 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Caitlin Masterson is one of four national recipients of a distinguished undergraduate research award, which was presented at the 2014 Eastern Analytical Symposium, a prestigious conference for analytical chemists. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}