I am seeking funding to travel to Espoo, Finland to fulfill an international collaboration between North Carolina State University and Aalto University where I have been accepted as a Visiting Scholar in the Bioproducts and Biosystems department of their School of Chemical Engineering. The objective is, in short, to upgrade recycled cardboard boxes into carbon fiber. Preliminary research on this project has already been completed with promising results.
I am a first generation female college student who grew up in a single-wide mobile home north of Montgomery, Alabama. I began my education at Central Alabama Community College where I earned an A.S. before transferring to Auburn University to earn a B.S. in Sustainable Biomaterials and Packaging and Sustainability Studies with honors. During that time, I accrued $20,000 of student load debt. However, I push the bounds of my potential forward and was accepted into NCSU’s Forest Biomaterials Ph.D. program. I have been conducting research there for the last 2.5 years on physical and chemical methods of converting recycled fibers into high purity dissolving pulp for applications such as cellulose acetate which emerged from a proposal a wrote myself. I was lucky to receive funding for this research thus far from the USDA, but these will run out this May (2024).
In the meantime, I have the forged the opportunity to continue my research in an international collaboration with Aalto University where I have been accepted as a visiting scholar from July 2024 - May 2025. This year-long research experience would allow me to fulfill the final experimental requirements of my dissertation to obtain my Ph.D. degree. It would also make my wildest dreams a reality. However, funding to do so has fallen short. So, I am seeking help from my U.S. community to help me make this possible.
Budget Breakdown:
Round-Trip Flight = $1,200
Housing = $500/month * 10 months = $5,000
Visa Expenses = $1,000
Ground Transportation = $80/month * 10 months = $800
International Health Insurance (10 months) = $1,150
Lab Equipment Use Fee = $1,750
Meals = $100/week * 41 weeks = $4,100
Me!
