Sophia Bricker

This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to work in the Şener research group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During my time there, I worked on reductive catalytic fractionation of sorghum and learned a great deal about reaction engineering and the process as a whole. While I came in knowing very little about bioenergy and biomass valorization, my mentor Sarada Sripada was incredibly helpful in giving me background into the work we were doing and its importance. I also had the pleasure of learning from Canan Şener, Steven D. Karlen, and many other wonderful colleagues while in the lab, who encouraged me to ask questions and to continue to develop a love for learning. 

As part of a larger cohort of REU students at UW–Madison, I was also grateful to attend lunch seminars three times a week. There, we learned from researchers across the chemistry, chemical engineering, and biological engineering departments about their work. We also learned of their professional paths and got to speak with several current PhD students, which was particularly inspiring for me as I consider higher education in the future. Additionally, as part of the GLBRC cohort, I was given the opportunity to visit Michigan State and Kellogg Biology Station to learn about the work being done there. Work at the GLBRC takes on a very collaborative nature (something I also learned while attending an inter-BRC lignin workshop) and I found it especially interesting to see sorghum being studied there from an ecological and biological perspective. Overall, I am so grateful for the 10 weeks of mentorship and professional development I received as a GLBRC Summer Student in the Şener lab and hope to one day continue doing work in the bioenergy field.