Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

NJIT's annual Graduate Student Association Research Day returned to the campus this week, after being cancelled last year because of COVID, with 39 students who are pursuing doctoral and master's degrees showcasing their cutting-edge research on topics such as the pandemic, climate, transportation and cybersecurity. The winner was Aida Lopez Ruiz, a chemical engineering doctoral student from Spain, who is helping breast cancer patients by putting chemotherapy drugs inside microscopic bits of platinum which only become toxic when they reach tumors. That way the drugs do not harm healthy...

Xiaoyang Xu, a chemical and materials engineer at NJIT who specializes in nanomedicines, has secured a $1 million award from the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation to develop the next generation of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Xu’s immediate goal is to improve protections against COVID-19. He is designing a nano-sized delivery vehicle for gene-based medications that can be stored much longer and at higher temperatures than the current mRNA shots deployed against the virus, including by freeze-drying. “More durable vaccines would be especially useful in rural and...

Daniela Bushiri, NJIT Class of 2021, has not been in the U.S. for long – about five years. In that time, she graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in chemical engineering, a minor in Applied Mathematics, and is now taking her talents to Columbia University in the fall where she will research alternative energy in pursuit of a Ph.D. She is an Albert Dorman Scholar, a McNair Scholar, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a member of the National Society of Black Engineers. Bushiri moved with her family from Congo to South Africa in 2000, then to Elizabeth, N.J. in 2016...

Samantha Swider ’21, fresh from the experience of earning a bachelor’s in chemical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology — which included three cooperative education roles, co-founding NJIT Green and running track, all as a member of Albert Dorman Honors College — is off to Merck, where she’ll work as an operations specialist. The Brick, N.J. native feels exceedingly well prepared, given some shrewd advice her advisor offered all the way back in year one. How would you describe your job at Merck? I will be working in a new vaccine manufacturing facility. The...