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MASbio

Education

Educational Program

The educational program includes online courses and a summer undergraduate scholar program. Primary and secondary educators and students are engaged through training sessions and learning toolkits to promote the sciences related to sustainable bioproducts systems.

The Team: Dan Ciolkosz (Lead), Scott Barett, Shawn Grushecky, Amir Hass, Hannah Payne, Jamie Schuler, Tim Volk,and Jingxin Wang.

Expected Impacts: Strengthened Workforce Development – Educated professionals ready to drive the bioeconomy. Established Education Pathways – Systematic training in green science and renewable technology. Expanded Industry-Academic Collaboration – Interns

2025 Summer Scholars program

Undergraduate Research Internship

During 2025, the Education task group partnered with Northeast Sun Grant. The summer program was hosted at Penn State University during June-July, with six students taking part in the program:

  1. Designing a Hybrid Biomass + Solar PV System | Amalia Abreu 
  2. Lignin-based Photopolymers for Sustainable Additive Manufacturing | Yuan Chen 
  3. Driving Regional Bioeconomies: Evaluating Biobased Alternatives to Single-Use Plastics in Reading, PA | Josephine Erb
  4. Low-Grade Wood Resource Assessment in Pennsylvania Forests | Mantavya Mahajan 
  5. Biomass thermal treatment equipment testing and design | Rudra Menon 
  6. Beyond the Model: Linking Moisture Dynamics to Microbial Function in Methane Biofilters | Irene Ochoa 

Accomplishments:


Major Accomplishments


Past programs

1. 2024 MASBio Summer Scholars Program - Undergraduate Research Internship

Virginia Tech University
5 undergraduate students participated in research and mentoring: 
  1. Assessing Regional Biomass Operations and Supply Chains -  Allison Wickman
  2. Sustainable Plastic Alternatives Derived from Biomass for Packaging Systems - Chloe Taylor
  3. Transpiration Drying and Associated Leaf Physiology of Common Appalachian Hardwood Species - Emme Linkous
  4. Using Hemp-Lime for Carbon Sequestration - Shannon Fisher
  5. A Modular Process System for Manufacturing Consumer Bioplastic Products from Food Waste - Sophia Deal
Learn more: Click here

2. 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Internship

West Virginia University Scholars
  1. Monitoring Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Ameris Chadband | Advisor, Amir Hass.
  2. Effect of Biochar on Microbial Extracellular Polysaccharide (EPS) Production and other Soil Attributes across Switchgrass and Willow Feedstocks - Sam Brumback | Advisor, Charlene Kelly
  3. Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Extraction using Biochar | Erika Weisman | Advisors, Oishi Sanytal and Shawn Grushecky.
  4. Production of Phenolic Monomers via Rapid Catalytic Lignin Depolymerization for Adhesive Applications - Abhinaya Polanka | Advisors, Changle Jiang and John Hu.
University of Winsconsin-Madison
  1. Biochar and Soil Microbial Activity - Katie Lindemann | Advisor: Zac Freedman)

3. 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Intership

State University of NY- ESF
  1. Retrofit Wood Panel Systems - Zoe Quinones
  2. Polyhydroxybutarate (PHB) production from willow biomass using low severity pretreatment - Emily Froass
  3. Long Term Soil Carbon Dynamics in Willow Biomass Crops - A. Herrington
  4. Digital Visualization for Education - Keagan Drago-Leaf 
Learn more: Click here

4. 2022 MASBio Seminar Series

Recordings of the presentations are available on our MASBio Youtube Channel and the MASBio website's Resources/Videos page.