I made the decision to come to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on the Rensselaer Medalist Day, where I was very impressed by the campus and the faculty.

I had always been interested in both physics and chemistry, and the points at which these two fields of discipline interact. When I was taking Macroscopic Physical Chemistry in the Fall of 2006, Dr. Ryu asked me to go and work in his lab with him, and I accepted. I have been working in Dr. Ryu’s research group ever since.

I am working in Dr. Ryu’s lab researching the physical chemistry of polymers, particularly polymer separations. Current methods of syntheses of polymers leave impurities within those polymers, and polymer separations provide a way of purifying such polymers. I use a variety of techniques, such as high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) to separate and characterize these polymers.

This Accelerated Ph.D. Program is an interesting new program here at Rensselaer. What I really like about it is the fact that it is relatively new, so the Deans are open to new ideas about how to run each person’s program independently. The Deans have been extraordinarily helpful to me, and I have only been in the program for one year now. They have helped me to apply my raw ideas effectively, so that I will get the most out of them, both in terms of academic credit and in actual experience. It really helps having people in charge of the program who are so open to new ideas.

In my spare time, I enjoy working out, reading, playing chess, and hanging out with friends. I grew up in Bristol, Rhode Island, and I attended Mt. Hope High School. I would like to send out a special thank you to Mr. Nicholas Hunt, a physics and chemistry teacher I had back in high school, for getting me into this field, and to my parents, for their never-ending support.

Wayne Powers recently spent four months in Korea, working on the characterization ofbrominated polystyrene at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). He traveled to Korea as part of the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program. The PIRE program is funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation that brings together scientists, engineers, graduate and undergraduate students from top U.S. and Korean universities. To learn more about his experience in Korea, read the article on page 2: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/science/news/newsletters/June%202008.pdf