Samantha Daymon
PhD Candidate – Polymer Science and Engineering

Samantha is a PhD Candidate in the Nazarenko Research Group. Her current research poster titled “A Comparative Study of Hydrogen Bond Organization between Three Generations of Dendrimers Based on bis-MPA” won second place in the 2022 Evonik Student Poster Competition at the Waterborne Symposium. Samantha is a recipient of The Charles E. Hoyle Memorial Polymer Science Scholarship Endowment and is an advisor for Alpha Delta Pi. She is also an active member and current treasurer of USM’s chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).

Catherine Sarantes
PhD Candidate – Polymer Science and Engineering

Catherine is a PhD Candidate in the Patton Research Group. Her current research focuses on greener methods of synthesis and recycling and she won fourth place in the 2022 Evonik Student Poster Competition at the Waterborne Symposium for her poster titled “Bulky Amines for Covalently Adaptable Polyurethanes”. She is also the recipient of the 2021 CPI Travel Honoraria for the 2021 Polyurethane Technical Conference in Denver, Colorado. Catherine is the Vice President of USM’s chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), as well as being a tutoring center coordinator and a graduate recruitment liaison.

Valeria Coello
B.S. – Polymer Science and Engineering

Valeria is an undergraduate student in the Morgan research group.She placed first in the Undergraduate portion of the 2022 Evonik Student Poster Awards at the Waterborne Symposium with a poster titled “Structure-property Relationships of Bioinspired Glycohydrogels for Transcuticalar Drug Delivery Applications”. Valeria has experience with NMR, TGA, GPC, DSC and TLC and small molecule synthesis. She is the Vice President for USM’s Undergraduate Chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and is on the Resident Assistant Advisory Board (RAAB).

Johnathan Grey
B.S. – Polymer Science and Engineering

Johnathan is an undergraduate in the Patton Research group. His most recent work relating to Synthesis and Evaluation of the Oxygen Barrier Properties of Polyisobutylene grafted Edge Oxidized Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Films won second place in the Undergraduate portion of the 2022 Evonik Student Poster Awards at the Waterborne Symposium. Johnathan is the recipient of the Academic Excellence Full Tuition Scholarship as well as the Thames High Ability Scolar Scholarship and he has been awardsed spots on both the Dean’s list and the President’s list for his academic excellence.