Graduate Student
Education
B.S. Honors (Chemistry), University of Tennessee, 2012
Biography
I’ve lived in Loudon, TN for the past sixteen years. After high school I attended Roane State Community College and obtained an A. S. degree with no concentration, and went on to get a B.S. majoring in Chemistry from the University of Tennessee in 2012. After graduating Dr. Larese temporarily employed me to continue the research I was performing as an undergraduate. I recently joined the Chemistry Graduate program.
Research
My research has involved the process of designing an inexpensive and reliable Quartz Crystal Microbalance. This uses the piezoelectric properties of a quartz disk to oscillate at a specific frequency, as a voltage is applied through surface electrodes, which allows for very sensitive measurements of mass changes. I am also working on ways to prepare and deposit silk proteins on the quartz crystal, so that we can further explore the process in which water affects the protein that is arranged in a crystalline manner. My studies have focused on the protein Fibroin which comes from the Bombyx mori or common silk worm, but future studies will shift more towards spider silk proteins.