Recent chemical engineering graduate Isaac Markus (ChE’2011) was awarded two major graduate fellowships this year.

The first was a Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation and the second was a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship from the American Society for Engineering Education. Both of these highly prestigious and competitive fellowship programs are federally funded and support advanced work in engineering and science. Mr. Markus is only allowed to accept one of these significant fellowships, despite being awarded both of them, and remains undecided as to which he will accept.

While at Cooper, Mr. Markus studied with Assistant Professor of Physics Robert R. Uglesich, Professor of Chemistry Robert Topper (who was also his research adviser), and Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Benjamin Davis. TTogether with Professor Topper and chemical engineering alumni Denise Bergin and Paul Sweeney, Mr. Markus co-authored a major publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry during his senior year at Cooper.

Currently Mr. Markus is pursuing a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, where he is part of the Asta Research Group, studying with Mark Asta and Lutgard De Jonghe. His current research studies proton conduction in rare earth phosphates for applications in solid oxide fuel cells.