Congratulations to this week’s student spotlight, Maria Belicak. Maria is a fourth year Chem E intending to graduate in December 2021. She is a part of AIChE’s mentorship committee, and frequently volunteers around Columbus. In her free time, Maria enjoys being outside by running, biking, and exploring whatever city she is in. If she’s hanging out at home, she enjoys spending time playing the piano or ukulele.
During her time at OSU, Maria has gained extensive experience with both internships and undergraduate research. She has interned for two terms with Marathon Petroleum: one in Findlay, Ohio with their pipeline environmental group, and one in Detroit, Michigan, as a technical services engineering intern. Maria has also been a part of Dr. Palmer’s research lab, where she studies the purification and surface coating of earthworm hemoglobin protein. With this research, her team is investigating the production optimization and stability/effectiveness of the product to be used as a blood transfusion material to substitute human blood donations. Maria says that her experience in the lab is the most important thing she has done outside of class and feels that it provided a great opportunity for both individual and group-based project experience. Maria would also like to add and thank you to Dr. Palmer’s group “for being great mentors—especially Chintan Savla!”
In the future, Maria hopes to explore opportunities in the oil and gas or biotech/pharma industries based on her experience from internships and research, but is open to any opportunities with an engaging work environment, teamwork, and problem solving. Congratulations again Maria and keep up the great work!