Tew Research Group

• Participant in the Summer 2015 SURE REU program under Tew's mentorship
• Awarded the Bates Summer Research Fellowship from the UMass Chemistry Department for her research
• Participant in UMass Chemistry Department Poster Session and the Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Poster Session with her poster, "Effect of Polymer Backbone Architecture on Delivery Efficiencies of ROMP-Based Protein Mimics." 

• Will present his paper "Phase Behavior and Li+ Ion Conductivity of Styrene-Ethylene Oxide Multiblock Copolymer Electrolytes," at the ACS Annual Fall Meeting in Boston, MA, August 2015.

• Awarded a Fulbright Student Scholarship to study in Denmark for 10 months with Professor Thomas Andresen of the Technical University of Denmark beginning in Fall of 2015.

• Presented her poster "Building New Protein Mimics for siRNA Delivery," at the ACS Annual Spring Meeting, Denver, CO, March 2015.

• Invited to AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition, San Diego, CA, sponsored by Catalent, Inc., November 2014.

• Oral presentation at PSE's Fall Polymer Event, "Using Polymer Design to Build New Protein Mimics for Delivery," October 2014.

• First place winner and one of five U.S. and international students chosen as winners of the 3rd Annual Global Academic Competition for Life Science Leaders of Tomorrow sponsored by The Catalent Applied Drug Delivery Institute and American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). Winners each received $2,000 and annual membership to the AAPS. Ilker's prize-winning entry is entitled: "Slipping Through the Blood Brain Barrier with Cell Penetrating Peptide Mimics," June 2014. 

• Presented her poster "Polymeric Cell Penetrating Peptide Mimics for siRNA Delivery," at the Drug Carriers for Medicine and Biology Gordon Research Conference in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, August 17-22, 2014. Brittany was also awarded a Graduate School Travel Grant to attend the conference.

• Traveled to Japan from June-August 2014 as participants with the NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) where they collaborated with scientists and learned about Japanese society, culture and language. 

• Presented research poster "Synthesis and Characterization of Polymeric Protein Mimic Precursors" in Fall 2014. 

• Presented poster at Models to Medicine Symposium, UMass Amherst, May, 2014.

Ph.D. Candidate

• Awarded Best Poster Presentation at the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Graduate Program Retreat, Spring 2014, for his poster "α-pPKC-θ (T538) Delivery via Cell Penetrating Peptide Mimics as a Novel Treatment of Aplastic Anemia." This poster was also presented at the 4th Annual International Bone Marrow Failure Disease Symposium, Rockville, MD, March 2014, 5th Annual Research Retreat, UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Worcester, MA, May 2014 and the Models to Medicine Symposium, UMass Amherst, May 2014.

• Presented her poster "Cell Penetrating Peptide Mimics Based on Guanidine-rich ROMP Polymers," at the Polymers Gordon Research Conference and Seminar, Mount Holyoke, MA, June 2013.

• "Efficienct Intracellular Delivery of EGFP into Jurkat T-Cells using Protein Transduction Domain Mimics," presented at the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Spring Poster Symposium, UMass Amherst, January 2013.

• Oral presentation at Annual Life Science Research Graduate Symposium, UMass Amherst, "α-pPKC-θ (T538) Delivery via Cell Penetrating Peptide Mimics as a Novel Treatment of Aplastic Anemia," 2013.

• Awarded an ACS POLY Division Student Travel Award to attend the IUPAC MACRO 2012: World Polymer Congress at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, June 2012.

Katie Gibney & Cathy Walker

• Recipients of a MRSEC Travel Award to attend and present at the 2012 Fall ACS Meeting.  Katie's presentation was entitled "Evaluation of ROMP-based Zwitterionic Surfaces for Nonfouling Applications" and Cathy presented "Lithium Ion-conducting, Thiolene-based Networks." 

• Recipient of the TA Instruments Graduate Student Presentation Award, 2012.

• Oral presentation "Novel Cell Penetrating Peptide Mimics," at CBI Program Chalk Talk, UMass Amherst, January 2012

• Recipient of the Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Progam Pre-doctoral Training Grant from the NIH, a 2 year fellowship, January 2012-2014.

• Recipient of the ICE IGERT Fellowship for 2011-2012.

• Selected from 100 applicants to present her work at the Graduate Research Symposium, Boston College, July 2010.

• Best Poster Award for "ROMP-Based Zwitterionic Polymers Carrying Dual Functionality," Polymers Gordon Research Seminar, June 2009.

• Recipient of The Medical and Ludcke Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for her project entitled "Nanotechnology for the Fight Against Multiple Resistant Bacteria: Self-Cleaning, Cell-Selective Antibacterial Surfaces for Medical Devices," July 2009.

• Invited to participate in the 1st NSF-sponsored U.S.-India Nano Science Institute (UINSEI), Chennai, India, 2008.
• Invited to participate in the STIPOMAT Conference in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, October 2007.

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NanoVenture Competition Finalist, Honolulu, HI, September 2006.
• UMass Technology Innovation Challenge Finalist, May 2006.
• Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) awarded from the National Science Foundation (NSF), July 2005-August 2007.
• Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Traineeship from the National Institute of Health (NIH), August 2004-July 2005.

• 21st Century Scholar, awarded by the UMass Alumni Association for  demonstration of excellence in academics, character, and service, May 2007.

Ph.D. Candidate

• Offered, but declined, an NIH Doctoral Fellowship in order to accept a Ford Doctoral Fellowship, December 2007.