Central College’s Summer Sterrenberg, Class of 2024, has been awarded one of the highly competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships through the National Science Foundation. Sterrenberg from Lake Mills, Iowa, will spend nine weeks this summer at the University of California Irvine working on chemistry research related to solving challenges of the nuclear fuel cycle.
Sterrenberg will work with seven other chemists who will participate in the Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program. In the lab, she will be working with Sarah Finkeldei, assistant professor of chemistry, and her team at the University of California Irvine. Finkeldei’s lab is focused on materials chemistry in the nuclear fuel cycle. As part of the program, the REU students will attend presentations, workshops and seminars related to career planning, industry and applying to graduate school.
“My summer research takes place at the interface between chemistry and materials science to contribute to solving challenges of the nuclear fuel cycle,” Sterrenberg says. “I will be studying complex oxides, which are considered as a potential nuclear waste form for the safe disposal of radionuclides in a deep geological repository.”
Sterrenberg will be working with the synthesis and characterization of these potential nuclear waste forms. The research has the potential to explore the thermal properties of advanced nuclear fuels to enhance the safety and efficiency of modern nuclear fuels for energy generation by nuclear power plants.
“This is a phenomenal opportunity for Summer to grow her chemistry knowledge and skills in a laboratory,” says Jim Shriver, professor of chemistry. “This experience along with her ambitious work will allow her to graduate in December with a bachelor of science in chemistry, one of Central’s newest degrees.”