Integrative Graduate
Education and
Research Traineeship

Highlight

The Drexel/UPenn IGERT Program Promotes Seamless Interdisciplinary Excellence

NSF Highlight on Ms. Kristy Jost

Projects:

IGERT Fellowships in Nanoscale Science & Engineering: The...

Institution:

Drexel University

Primary Strategic Goal:

Discovery: Foster research that will advance the frontiers of knowledge, emphasizing areas of greatest opportunity and potential benefit and establishing the Nation as a global leader in fundamental transformational science and engineering.

Secondary Strategic Goal:

Learning: Build the Nation's research capability through critical investments in advanced instrumentation, facilities, cyber infrastructure, and experimental tools.

Achievement/Results

Drexel/UPenn IGERT Trainee, Kristy Jost, has been awarded two national fellowships. Kristy Jost, an IGERT trainee of Drexel University (advisor, Dr. Yury Gogotsi) was awarded two highly selective fellowships this year. Kristy was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) as well as the DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG).

Kristy completed her undergraduate degree in Fashion and Design at Drexel University in 2011 and utilized her Research Co-op experience working between Prof. Gogotsi’s carbon nanomaterials laboratory and Prof. Genevieve Dion’s Shima Seki Haute Tech Laboratory to conduct interdisciplinary research on Fashion and Technology. This research led her to various publications and presentations, including the 2011 International Society of Electrochemistry conference in Nice, France where she presented her poster titled “Fabrics Capable of Capacitive Energy Storage”. Most recently, she presented an invited talk at the 2012 Spring MRS Meeting in California. She has also presented her research to NSF RET Fellows and local Girl Scouts during “Introduce a Girl to Engigneering Day” at Drexel.

Address Goals

This activity addresses the primary strategic goal of discovery due to Kristy’s world class research on fashionable technology and it’s potential to revolutionize the way we approach various multidisciplinary problems. Furthermore, the secondary goal of learning is being addressed due to Kristy’s unique background and interdisciplinary approach to research, utilizing both fashion, design, and engineering principles. Her award of these two nationally prestigious fellowships speaks to the country’s need for such unique approaches to research.