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NCSU National Needs Fellows: Progress to Date

National Needs Proposal

Year 1 update

Justin Zoppe's Study Abroad Experience

One of the reasons that I chose to apply for the National Needs Fellowship (NNF) program in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at NCSU was the promise of an opportunity to perform a research study abroad during the course of my Ph.D.  I have always been interested in spending time abroad because I have always felt that I could learn many things from a culture that is new to me.  The NNF program has given me just that.  This past semester, Spring 2010, I had the opportunity to spend the semester at Aalto University in the Department of Forest Products Technology in Espoo, Finland.

My experience in Finland was, in numerous ways, life-changing.  It was not only as a professional researcher, but as a person as well.  When I first arrived in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in January, 2010, naturally the first difference I noticed was the weather.  They had a record amount of snow this past winter, which was beautiful to see.  I learned a much different lifestyle than what we are so used to in the United States, in a very positive way.  However, it was an easy transition to the new culture around Helsinki because almost everywhere that I went, the people could speak English.  That fact made getting around the city alone very simple.  Also, there were many foreigners from around the world working in the university, so everyone communicated to each other in English.  When I came back to the United States, I was ready to come home to see old friends and family, but I was also sad to leave the great people that I had met and the new culture I had gotten used to.   

My Ph.D. research was also significantly improved during the course of my stay.  First of all, I gained a broader perspective of my research area and developed skills in specialized instrumentation that are not available at NCSU.  The culture of the work environment was another learning experience that improved my ability to focus on my research.  In addition, I have established the possibility of future collaborations with other research groups within Aalto University and had the opportunity to give an oral presentation at a professional conference entitled “47th Nordic Polymer Days,” which was well-received.  Overall, my research study abroad was one of the best experiences of my life.

 

 

Fellow Presentations, Attended Conferences, Publications, and Awards
Rachel Ernest
  • Oral Presentation - Fibrillated Cellulose Composite Materials (Progress in Paper Physics Seminar, Montreal Canada, June 2010)
  • Micro-fibrillated Cellulose Cross-linked with Bacterial Polyamide (236th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco CA, March 2010 - oral presention by Joel J. Pawlak)
  • 2nd place - 2009 Eastman Chemical Graduate Student Award ($1000)
  • Poster presentation - Properties of Composites of Highly-Refined Cellulose Fibers with Biosynthesized Polyamide (ACS Local Section Meeting, Research Triangle Park NC, September 2009)
  • 1st place - Poster Presentation Award (ACS Local Section Meeting, RTP NC, Sept 2009)
  • Oral presentation - Biological-Cellulosic Microcomposite Materials (237th ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City UT, March 2009)
  • Selected to participate in ACS 2008 Green Chemistry and Engineering Summer School at Colorado School of Mines.
  • Poster presentation - Surface Acetylation of Highly-Refined Cellulose and Relation to Physical Properties (ACS 2008 Green Chemistry and Engineering Summer School, Golden CO, July 2008)
    • Kelley Spence
  • Poster presentation - Production of Microfibrillated Cellulose Utilizing Various Processing Methods (ACS Local Section Meeting, Research Triangle Park, NC, September 23, 2009)
  • Poster presentation - Water Interactions of Microfibril Cellulose of Varying Chemical Compositions (237th ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, March 21-27, 2009)
  • Oral presentation - Wood Pulp Chemical Composition Effects on the Development of Microfibrillated Cellulose (237th ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, March 21-27, 2009)
  • Publication - Sugar Surfactants in Paper Recycling, Nordic Pulp and Paper Research Journal - Reviewed 2008
  • Oral presentation - Natural Surfactants in Paper Recycling (235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008)
  • Oral presentation - Natural Surfactants in Paper Recycling (Colloid Division meeting, Raleigh NC, June 2008)
  • Natural Surfactants for Floatation Deinking in Paper Recycling (2007, Montreal, Canada - presented by Dr. Venditti of NCSU)
  • Comparison of Various Hardwood Kraft Pulp Pre-bleaching Techniques (TAPPI Pulping and Bleaching Conference, October 2007, Jacksonville Florida - oral presentation - presented by Dale Nutter of MWV)
  • Publication - Comparison of Various Hardwood Kraft Pulp Pre-bleaching Techniques - Peer Reviewed for TAPPI Journal, 2007
  • Glucanase activity on model thin films of cellulose - (233rd ACS National Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 25-29, 2007 - oral presentation - presented by Dr. Turon of NCSU)
  • Model films of cellulose to monitor enzyme activity - (233rd ACS National Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 25-29, 2007 - oral presentation - presented by Dr. Turon of NCSU)
  • Ethoxylated and sugar-based surfactants in recycled paper deinking- (233rd ACS National Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 25-29, 2007 - poster presentation - presented by Hunter Morris and Jarrod Tucker of NCSU)
  • Cellulase Activity on Thin Films of Cellulose by Qcm and Spr - (2006 AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, November 12-17 - oral presentation - presented by Dr. Turon of NCSU)
  • Poster presentation - Development of Thin Films for Studies in Surface Chemistry (234th ACS National Meeting, Atlanta, GA, April 2006)
    		•
    Justin Zoppe
  • 1st place 2009 Eastman Chemical Graduate Student Award ($2000)
  • Presented two posters at 237th ACS National Conference in Salt Lake
    City.
  • Presented one poster at a 123rd NC ACS Sectional Conference in
    Research Triangle Park, NC.
  • Publication - “Reinforcing Poly(ε-caprolactone) Nanofibers with Cellulose
    Nanocrystals,” Justin O. Zoppe, Maria S. Peresin, Youssef Habibi,
    Richard A. Venditti, Orlando J. Rojas, ACS Applied Materials &
    Interfaces, 1(9), 1996-2004 (2009).
  • Publication - "Nanofiber composites of polyvinyl alcohol and cellulose
    nanocrystals: Manufacture and characterization" Maria S. Peresin,
    Youssef Habibi, Justin O. Zoppe, Joel J. Pawlak, Orlando J. Rojas,
    accepted by Biomacromolecules.
  • Publication - “A variational solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation by a restricted superposition of frozen Gaussian wave packets,” Justin O. Zoppe, Meredith L. Parkinson, Michael Messina, Chemical Physics Letters, 407, 308-314 (2005).
  • Poster presentation - “ATRP modification of cellulose fibers and nanocrystals,” Division of Cellulose & Renewable Materials Poster Session, 235th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition, New Orleans, LA (April 2008).
  • Award - NNF Fellowship, Forest Biomaterials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University. (2007).
  • Award - Hypercube Scholar Award, (2005).
  • Award - GAANN Fellowship, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, (2005).
  • Conference Attended - 82nd ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, Raleigh, NC (June 2008).
  • Conference Attended - 235th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition, New Orleans, LA (April 2008).
  • Special Training Course - Chemstation for GC Data Analysis and Reporting, Agilent Technologies, (2007).
  • Special Training Course - Gas Analysis by FTIR, Spectros Associates, (2006).
  • Special Training Course - Applied SPC and NWA Quality Analyst, Northwest Analytical, (2006).


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