A $1,000 scholarship has been awarded to Prastuti Upadhyay, an undergraduate student in the materials science and engineering department at Drexel University. Although only in her third year, Upadhyay has already made significant research contributions, working under the direction of Dr. Yury Gogotsi and Dr. Stefano Ippolito. Her research has focused on the synthesis, processing and tribological properties of 2D MXene hydrogels/aerogels. Upadhyay is a Students Tackling Advanced Research Scholars Program (STAR) Scholar and has already received numerous awards, including an undergraduate research mini-grant, the prestigious SuperNova Research Fellowship, the Joel Lipkin Endowed Award and the 2024 WAAIME Scholarship. She has presented at the STAR Summer Showcase 2023, Undergraduate Excellence Week 2023 and NanoDay 2023 at UPenn and is the professional development chair of Materials Advantage and a member of the Society of Women Engineers.
Through her first two years Upadhyay has become extremely active in the Drexel community and continues to be a consistent presence in the laboratory while maintaining a 3.88 GPA. Dr. Gogotsi describes her as “extremely focused, engaged and ambitious” and is certain she will continue to provide significant contributions to the scientific community.