News

We translate network polymer science into applications

Our proposal, "Fundamental Study of Petrolume-derived Solid Reactants for Photopolymerization", received support from ACS PRF. It is the first project we received on phase-changing photopolymerization resin systems. 

Nate's first paper has been accepted in Green Chemistry! Nate independently conducted the study as an undergradaute researcher. Way to go, Nate!

The Utah polymer community gathered for a one-day symposium featuring keynotes, talks, and posters! Billy and Jimmy gave excellent talks; Andrei gave a great poster! 

Undergrads are all killing it ! Sophie, Kara, Zuzanna all accepted full-time intern positions at Amrize, Applied Materials, and BD, respetively. Andrei also got an intern at Hexcel. Hope you all have a great fun and see you in the Fall!

Congratulations to the class of 2026! Sevearl group members presented their senior design projects. Congrats to Tyler, Kara, and Nate! 

Of course, we went skiing. Don't you know Salt Lake City is home to many world-class resorts and backcountry skiing, within a 40-min drive? 

Jimmy, Nate, Andrei, Chen, and friends from the Huang group went skiing at Brighton. We had so much fun that we forgot to take pictures! 

It is a great pleasure to host Prof. Chris Bowman from the University of Colorado Boulder. Prof. Bomwan gave an inspiring seminar on photopolymerization and had a "lunch-and-learn" together with students in the group.

Twelve students from both our and our collaborator Prof. Sijia Huang’s groups attended the conference in Boulder, CO, from Sep 15-19. 

Great science, great experiences!!!

Our work on degradable dielectric polymer materials received NSF STTR support. We are thrilled to conduct applied science towards mitigating e-waste accumulation!

Lunch buffet can't go wrong! We celebrate the new semester at Kathmandu Grill, a SLC classic!

In the first two weeks of June 2025, Chen went to the East Coast. He attended the DOE VTO Annual Merit Review meeting in DC to discuss the project. Then he attended the Gordon Research Conference on polymer chemistry at South Hadley, Massachusetts. 

He also gave seminars at the University of Delaware, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Formlabs Inc. Nice to reconnect with old friends and make new friends! 

This summer will be busy! We have three PhD students, two postdoctoral researchers, and seven undergraduates on full-time paid positions. Today, we kick off the summer with a group meeting on lab safety, lab culture, and research directions. 

Congratulations to Sophoe and Kara on winning the Crus Scholarship.  

The ACS POLY/PMSE Utah Student Chapter held the inaugural Utah Polymer Symposium on May 8, 2025, at the University of Utah campus. It was a huge success. Students from UU, Brigham Young University (BYU), Utah State University, and Idaho State University came together for a full day of polymer experience, including industry talks (from GO Composites and 3-Form), “polymer trivia”, and student presentations (cash award). 

It is a big day for the group. Our first PhD student, Grant Musgrave, successfully defended his thesis! Fantastic work, Grant! 

Grant will be joining Bloom Energy at San Jose, CA to work on next-generation fuel cells!

Grant's paper on recyclable resin for fiber composite materials was accepted in Macromolecular Rapid Communication. This work is at the core of Grant's PhD thesis. Congratulations!!!

Grant and Eden's paper on renewable liquid resin was accepted in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Eden is an undergraduate researcher. Fantastic work, guys! 

Caleb's paper on ultratough photopolymers, after a review purgatory, was accepted in ACS Materials Letters. Excellent paper!

Caleb gave an excellent talk at the award symposium! Way to go, Caleb! 

Our collaborator, Dr. Xinbo Yang, and us received an award from the Department of the Interior's OSMRE Applied Science program to work on acid mine drainage revalorization! 

They learned a great deal of customer discovery and eletronic materials! 

We've got work to do! This is the first major federal funding that the group recevies. Special acknowlegement goes to Grant who did a lot of preliminary work demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed technology. 

Grant, Caleb, and Chen attended the PF2023 conference at Boulder, CO. Grant and Caleb gave fantastic posters that drew quite a crowd!

Our first independent paper just got accepted! Congratulations to Grant, together with MS Student Mille and REU students John and Katie!

Grant, Millie, and Chen attended the MRS Spring 2023 conference, representing the group, giving four talks! 

Millie successfully defended her MS thesis. It was a full house! Millie independently initiated a new field of studying soil-compostable photopolymer networks. Fantastic work, Millie!

Dr. Caleb Reese joins the lab as a postdoctoral researcher, coming from Colorado School of Mines and Georgetown University with a wealth of experience in high-performance polymer synthesis. Caleb will be working on thiol-ene photopolymers!

Mr. Grant Musgrave is our first PhD student and he set up his first experiment at the U of Utah! 

Our proposal "Biodegradable Polymers Used in Flexible Print Circuit Board" was selected for award in Meta 2021 Environmental considerations for soft electronics systems and energy sources RFP.