Mary Waddington (Spokoyny group) was selected for the AFRL 2017 Space Scholars Program to work on ionic liquid tailoring for thin conductive film electrolysis.
Such films hold promise in tunable thermal coatings for spacecraft.
The 1st year Ph.D. student in Prof. Alex Spokoyny’s group will spend the summer conducting research with Dr. Lok-kun Tsui as a paid intern at New Mexico’s Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, NM.
This is Mary’s second Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) experience. In 2014 she researched mesoporous materials for explosives applications in the High Explosives Research and Development (HERD) Division at Eglin Air Force Base in Pensacola, Florida.
After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Kent State University in Northeast Ohio, Mary came to UCLA where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in materials chemistry within the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The AFRL Space Scholars Program is geared towards giving students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) an opportunity to experience research in an Air Force laboratory and to work on projects directly related to promoting national security.
