Congratulations to five CBE PhD candidates on recently being awarded Post-Comprehensive Research Awards or Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Fellowships from the University of Iowa Graduate College! Jacob Fields, Tanner Grover, and Beiming Tang were awarded Post-Comprehensive Research Awards while Megan Christiansen and Gonzalo Ferrada were recipients of the Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Fellowships. 

	Jacob Fields - Jacob is researching electrochemical methods to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and useful chemicals like formic acid. His research focuses on catalyst and reactor design to make the process more economically viable.
	Tanner Grover - Tanner researches the effects polymer molecular structure has on material properties such as strength. He controls polymer structure using photopolymerization chemistry and then investigates material performance to increase understanding on structure/property relationships.
	Beiming Tang - Beiming's research is analyzing ozone and PM2.5 mechanisms in East Asia through modeling. His focus is on the process-level transport, generation and sinks of air pollution across nations. He aims to publish more subtle control strategy that improves air quality with the least harm to the economy.
	Megan Christiansen - Megan's research focuses on studying ozone and PM2.5 to improve air quality in coastal regions.
	Gonzalo Ferrada - Gonzalo’s research focuses on improving the representation of fires and smoke in model simulations. Smoke can cause poor air quality episodes and alter the Earth’s Energy Budget that leads to climate change. The figure shows fires in Northern California observed with satellites.