Graduate Student Awards

Bruce Kirkpatrick honored with Outstanding Dissertation Award

Susan Glairon — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 20:16:06 +0000

Bruce Kirkpatrick honored with Outstanding Dissertation Award Susan Glairon Wed, 11/26/2025 - 13:16

Susan Glairon

Bruce Kirkpatrick

PhD, Biological Engineering, 2025

Dissertation Name

Photochemical Control of Hydrogel Network Topology: Fundamentals to Cellular Applications

Defended

July, 29, 2025

Associated lab

Anseth Group

Current position

Third-year medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Denver Health

College of Engineering and Applied Science Outstanding Dissertation Award

This award recognizes the best dissertation (excellence of research, topical importance and presentation in the written dissertation) among students completing PhD degree requirements during a calendar year.

Why did you choose CU Boulder for your graduate studies?

I came to CU in 2013 for my undergraduate degree in chemical and biological engineering (ChBE), and I really enjoyed it. After earning my BS in 2017, I applied to MD-PhD programs and was accepted at CU to continue into medical and graduate school. I was thrilled to return to ChBE as a graduate student because I knew how strong the biomedical research program was, especially with Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth in the department. Having the chance to work with her and other faculty like Distinguished Professor Chris Bowman, Professor Jason Burdick and Professor Tim White offered the experiential learning in materials science and bioengineering that I hoped for as a budding physician-scientist. (Not to mention that it is great to live in Colorado! I’d be glad to never leave.)

Hydrogels can act as tiny scaffolds that let us create precise patterns or gradients in stiffness or biochemical cues (in this case, a Mona Lisa narrower than a human hair), giving us fine control over the environment that cells experience.

What does receiving this award mean to you?

It’s a huge honor to be selected by my mentors, department, and college.This award affirms that the years I’ve invested in both science and the community are valued. I’ve been part of the ChBE program for 12 years, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to do work worthy of this recognition. I owe a great deal to Dr. Anseth for her guidance and to my collaborators and mentees for giving so much of their time to bring our projects to fruition. I feel especially grateful to have grown my work in such a supportive and collaborative environment.

Tell me about your dissertation research.

Broadly, my research focuses on developing jello-like polymeric materials called hydrogels. I use light to build, break and rearrange the tiny chemical connections within them, which lets us control properties like stiffness, degradation, relaxation, and cell behavior with precise timing and location. This helps us create more tunable, lifelike environments for studying biology and developing future medical therapies.

What applications could this research have in the future?

This research supports technologies that enable long-acting or precisely timed drug and vaccine delivery, as well as protective hydrogels that shield donor cells from the immune system and improve their survival after transplantation. These materials can also be used to create acellular devices such as contact lenses, wound dressings, and tissue adhesives along with more realistic tissue models that give researchers better platforms for studying disease and testing new treatments.

Why do you think your dissertation resonated with the award committee?

I think the committee appreciated the range of questions my dissertation addressed and how

By adjusting the properties of a hydrogel around human cells embedded in 3D, we can dramatically change how the cells stretch, spread and connect to one another, helping us understand how their surroundings shape their behavior.

the work connected chemistry, materials science and biology in a coherent way. The projects included new approaches for designing photoresponsive hydrogels, studies of mechanobiology, and tissue engineering applications, with contributions that spanned departments, colleges, and campuses across CU. I think the committee also recognized how deeply collaborative the work was. Rather than solving a single problem, my thesis points toward a variety of future applications, so its impact comes from its breadth and the way it supports a wide range of community efforts.

Why does this research topic interest you?

This field naturally combines my interests in photochemistry, dynamic chemistry, and polymers with biophysics and materials science. Hydrogels are programmable, biologically relevant platforms, so the work is both scientifically rich and clinically useful.

Who was particularly influential to your work?

Dr. Anseth was the most influential figure in my scientific training. Her intellectual brilliance, generosity with her time, and ability to connect fundamental chemistry with meaningful biological questions have shaped the way I think about research. I’ve also learned a tremendous amount from her former trainees, many of whom now lead their own groups. I was especially inspired by Professor Cole DeForest, Associate Professor Mark Tibbitt, Professor Jason Burdick, Professor April Kloxin, and Tobin Brown’s work, to name a few. My amazing collaborators and mentees were essential to the success of every project and working alongside them is what made the science rewarding.

What’s next?

I plan to apply for residency in radiation oncology. I’m excited to work as a physician-scientist with interests in materials science and photochemistry, and my goal is to build a career that bridges the clinical care of cancer patients with research on biomaterials, imaging and analysis tools, and light-based technologies. I ultimately hope to contribute to new treatment strategies that are more tolerable, precise, and effective.

Chemical and Biological Engineering PhD Student Bruce Kirkpatrick was honored with the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award. His hydrogel research supports technologies that enable 3D cell culture for tissue engineering and disease modeling, as well as acellular biomaterials for applications like controlled release of drugs or vaccines.

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Anika Friedman recognized by American Chemical Society

Susan Glairon — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 19:18:12 +0000

Anika Friedman recognized by American Chemical Society Susan Glairon Mon, 10/13/2025 - 13:18

Professor Michael Shirts' graduate student, Anika Friedman, was awarded the American Chemicals Society's Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award for Graduate Students. The award was presented at the CS Fall 2025 in Washington, DC.

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Chemical engineering PhD student earns major NSF fellowship

Susan Glairon — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 23:33:07 +0000

Chemical engineering PhD student earns major NSF fellowship Susan Glairon Mon, 06/30/2025 - 17:33

Susan Glairon

Annette Thompson, a chemical engineering PhD student, has received a 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a prestigious award that recognizes and supports outstanding students in a wide variety of science-related disciplines. Thompson is co-advised by Associate Professor Jerome Fox and Professor Michael Shirts.

This year, the National Science Foundation awarded Graduate Research Fellowships to 11 ��, College of Engineering and Applied Science students. Due to federal budget cuts, the program was reduced by 25 percent, with 1,500 fellowships awarded nationwide compared to 2,000 last year.

Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 and full coverage of tuition, fees and insurance, along with opportunities for international research and professional development that span five years.

What is your research focused on?

My research focuses on better understanding and redesigning the molecular “assembly lines” that cells use to make chemical building blocks, especially fatty acids. These natural systems rely on helper proteins to guide molecules through a series of enzymatic steps, but how these enzymes selectively interact with their partners is still not well understood.

I use computer-based tools—like simulations that predict how molecules move and interact over time, and models that estimate how changes in enzyme levels and behavior impact final yield—to study these systems and identify engineering targets for controlling product outcomes. By combining computational methods with experimental collaboration, my work aims to help create new biotechnologies that can produce a wider range of useful chemicals more efficiently than nature can on its own.

What are potential applications of your work?

My research could lead to more sustainable ways to make everyday products like medicines and fuels, without relying on petroleum-based processes. By making enzyme systems more precise and efficient, we can lower costs and create cleaner, greener manufacturing processes.

What does receiving this award mean to you?

Receiving this award is a huge honor. The support will allow me the flexibility to expand my research into new biosynthetic pathways and organisms, and to develop faster and better tools for characterizing new systems. I am deeply grateful to my advisors, Dr. Jerome Fox and Dr. Michael Shirts, whose support and expertise have been instrumental in shaping this work and making these collaborations possible.

Annette Thompson, a chemical engineering PhD student, has received a 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, for her research around the molecular “assembly lines” cells used to build chemicals like fatty acids.

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Two chemical engineering PhD students earn major NSF fellowships

Susan Glairon — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:49:34 +0000

Two chemical engineering PhD students earn major NSF fellowships Susan Glairon Mon, 06/30/2025 - 13:49

Annette Thompson's research could lead to more sustainable ways to make everyday products like medicines and fuels without petroleum-based processes; Nolan Petrich's work could help develop therapies that help repair or replace damaged tissues or organs by using the body’s healing abilities for intestinal diseases.

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