Andrew Ruttinger (PhD May 2021) won two awards recognizing the outstanding quality of his PhD research. In December 2020, Andrew received the Austin Hooey award from Cornell University, from whom he received his Ph.D. degree. This award is given to two students from the Robert Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering who have not only produced outstanding research, but who have also contributed to the inclusiveness of the graduate student community.
In May 2021, Andrew won the inaugural Mark O. Robbins prize for excellence in research featuring high-performance computation using the petascale resources of ARCH (Advanced Research Computing at Hopkins). This was a university-wide competition with two awards for Ph.D. students.
Andrew’s awards recognized the breadth and depth of his research, featured in six publications: Three are published, one is under review and two more are submitted. Five of them are first-author papers. They cover an impressive array of topics: from computational approaches to aid the selective extraction of Li from brine, to uncovering the mechanism of thiol Michael addition reactions as well as the Hines mechanism for PbS nanoparticle synthesis. He has also completed a paper to provide best practices for Nudged Elastic Band calculations of energy barriers, for the self-assembly phase of ‘phase change materials’ for energy storage, and a rigorous techno-economic and market analysis of process scenarios for profitable carbon capture (with Prof. Sarah Jordaan, SAIS at JHU).
Fittingly, for his focus on advancing sustainable energy solutions, Dr. Ruttinger is now working for the Canadian government to help use his country’s natural resources in a sustainable and climate-friendly manner. He won a prestigious Canadian NSERC Fellowship in 2017.
