Author Archives: Laura Ives

Summer 2021 is in the books

We had a great summer with some great interns.

Johnny and Amber, have a great year back at school.  Charley, welcome to the team.

It will soon be time to post and apply to summer internships for summer 2022.  Please consider joining us at the OESLab in Holland, MI.

Amber Little

Amber is our third intern for summer 2021.  She is a Chemical Engineering student from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.  Her summer abstract is titled “Electrochemical Investigation of a Symmetric Nonaqueous Redox Flow Battery”.

Amber is returning to Rose-Hulman for her last year to complete her degree.  Amber is a very efficient lab worker and she helped us continue the development of a working redox flow battery prototype.  Thank you for spending the summer with us, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!

Charley Hengesbach

Charley Hengesbach spent her summer with us in beautiful Holland, MI.  She graduated from Alma College with a degree in Chemistry in the spring of this year.  Her abstract was titled “Exploiting a Pyrylium Route to New Redox-Active Pyridinium Compounds”.

We really enjoyed having Charley with us this summer, and she must have enjoyed spending it with us because she will be continuing her employment with Jolt Energy.  We are really thrilled that she has decided to stick around.

Johnny Drozd

Johnny is our first highlighted intern of summer 2021.  He is a Chemistry student from Western Michigan University.  Johnny came to us interested in synthesis and we aim to please.  His poster was titled “The Synthesis of Pyridinium Salts for Electrochemical Applications”.

Johnny is a great, fun and talented chemist.  He is returning to Western for one more semester and we are excited to find out what comes next for him.  Thanks for spending the summer with us!

MSU Mid-Sure Conference Presentations

Two of our summer interns chose to participate in the MSU Mid-Sure Conference.  This year this conference and these presentations were virtual.  Go to YouTube and check out their summer research…

Amber Little: “Electrochemical Investigation of a Symmetric Nonaqueous Redox Flow Battery”

 

Johnny Drozd: “The Synthesis of Pyridinium Salts for Electrochemical Applications”

 

Hope College Summer Research Symposium 2021

We have thanked Hope College many times for including us in their Summer Research Symposiums and we are indebted to them again…  Many thanks for allowing our students to show off their hard work this summer.  The symposium was a great success with a lot of interesting research being displayed.  Our MSU OESLab group had five posters of the more than forty that were displayed.  There are some great research contributions going on at Hope College!

 

Summer 2021 Intern Program

We are excited to welcome our summer 2021 cohort to the lab starting in May!

Johnny Drozd – Western Michigan University

Charley Hengesbach – Alma College

Amber Little – Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

Thank you to all of our applicants.  Please consider applying again next year for further consideration.

Jessie Scott

Welcome back to the lab Jessie!  Jessica started at OESLab as a summer intern in 2016.  She has since (1) graduated from Hope College with a Chemistry major, (2) worked in Chicago at Argonne Labs and (3) received a Masters in Chemistry from the University of Michigan before she returned to the lab in January.  She is helping us find commercially viable solutions for organic flow batteries.

 

 

Marcus Brinks

Marcus was hired in September 2020 and started as a full-time researcher.  He has a Chemical  Engineering degree and a Chemistry degree from Hope College class of 2020.  Marcus has been working hard at organic synthesis of novel organic electron donating compounds for the lab.  He is a great addition to the lab, and he will be a great asset to our summer interns.

Makayla Schueler

Continuing with our introduction series…

Makayla has been part of the OESL group since October 2020. She graduated from GVSU with a degree in Biochemistry. Previously she worked on the synthesis of electrochemical compounds for a year and a half as an intern at Gentex prior to starting at OESL. Currently, she is working on the synthesis of electron acceptor derivatives for aqueous and non-aqueous redox flow batteries.  She will also be a mentor to our soon to be arriving summer researchers.