My name is Dylan Beck and I am currently a senior chemical engineering student at UC Davis. I have semi-continuously been involved in research since 2017. My first research internship was working with parasitic plants and how they harm tomato plants by connections (haustoria) that insert harmful RNAi (Interaction RNA). I worked closely with Dr. Daniel Steele and Dr. John Yoder. To accomplish this, we recorded the zygosity of samples with an inserted recombinant plasmid with a gene to destroy these haustoria marked with a fluorescent indicator. The mission was to send these tomatoes to areas native to parasitic plants such as regions of Israel and South Sudan.
The following year I worked on the "Hand-Powered Centrifuge Project" partnered with UC Davis under a NASA grant at my community college, Sacramento City College. I worked in the Miller laboratory with a graduate student mentor from UC Davis and under Dr. Bill Miller. The goal was to create a 3D-Printed centrifuge similar to a whirligig toy. This would reduce weight in rocket ships for future space missions, as a traditional centrifuge could be swapped out for the light-weight centrifugal disk. There I worked with my team to optimize the disk geometry as well as the material of the surrounding string.
After transferring to UC Davis in 2021, I became a part of the VIP (Vertically Integrated Projects) program for incoming transfer students to get involved in research at the university. I worked with the Kronawitter laboratory to study on a project titled "Exploring Electrocatalytic Reactions with Highly Dispersed Metal Catalysts". There I worked under the guidance of Dr. Coleman Kronawitter and his graduate students to explore zeolite frameworks for atomically dispersed catalysts. We quantified these results through cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry. The goal was to maximize catalyst surface area through these new frameworks.
The following summer, I continued in the VIP program under Dr. Glaucia Prado by improving her laboratory course designs for her chemical engineering food processing course. The course is designed to give senior level chemical engineering students a rigorous education in food processing and educate on the various concepts one will encounter throughout the industry. The laboratories I worked on involved the analysis of the extent of browning reactions by UV-vis spectrophotometry (OceanView spectrophotometric instrument) and quantification of emulsion stability of mayonnaise with different emulsifiers using an Anton Paar MCR 92 rheometer.
From September to December 2022 I worked in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I studied Density Functional Theory to perform calculations to determine the energetics of hydrogen absorption in Cerium Oxide as well as the kinetic parameters of its diffusion. I studied elements of solid state physics as necessary and various DFT methods utilizing DFTB+ on an HPC.
The following year I worked on the "Hand-Powered Centrifuge Project" partnered with UC Davis under a NASA grant at my community college, Sacramento City College. I worked in the Miller laboratory with a graduate student mentor from UC Davis and under Dr. Bill Miller. The goal was to create a 3D-Printed centrifuge similar to a whirligig toy. This would reduce weight in rocket ships for future space missions, as a traditional centrifuge could be swapped out for the light-weight centrifugal disk. There I worked with my team to optimize the disk geometry as well as the material of the surrounding string.
After transferring to UC Davis in 2021, I became a part of the VIP (Vertically Integrated Projects) program for incoming transfer students to get involved in research at the university. I worked with the Kronawitter laboratory to study on a project titled "Exploring Electrocatalytic Reactions with Highly Dispersed Metal Catalysts". There I worked under the guidance of Dr. Coleman Kronawitter and his graduate students to explore zeolite frameworks for atomically dispersed catalysts. We quantified these results through cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry. The goal was to maximize catalyst surface area through these new frameworks.
The following summer, I continued in the VIP program under Dr. Glaucia Prado by improving her laboratory course designs for her chemical engineering food processing course. The course is designed to give senior level chemical engineering students a rigorous education in food processing and educate on the various concepts one will encounter throughout the industry. The laboratories I worked on involved the analysis of the extent of browning reactions by UV-vis spectrophotometry (OceanView spectrophotometric instrument) and quantification of emulsion stability of mayonnaise with different emulsifiers using an Anton Paar MCR 92 rheometer.
From September to December 2022 I worked in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I studied Density Functional Theory to perform calculations to determine the energetics of hydrogen absorption in Cerium Oxide as well as the kinetic parameters of its diffusion. I studied elements of solid state physics as necessary and various DFT methods utilizing DFTB+ on an HPC.
