Academics

Chan awarded scholarship by Astronaut Scholarship Foundation

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Stanley Chan, a senior majoring in chemical engineering in Penn State’s College of Engineering, has been awarded the 2015 Astronaut Scholarship Foundation scholarship.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created to ensure that the United States would maintain its leadership in science and technology by supporting promising students in science and engineering. Scholarship candidates must be nominated by faculty members and must be in an engineering, science or mathematics field. Scholarship nominees are those students who have shown initiative, creativity and excellence in their chosen field.

Chan’s resume includes internships at Procter and Gamble and 3M, significant research in Manish Kumar’s Biomimetic Materials Engineering Lab, and membership in the Engineering Ambassador Program, a prestigious program that links him to new communities at Penn State.

Chan is working to develop a solar cell for hydrogen production using photosynthetic proteins from cyanobacteria, for which he is co­-author on a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials. He’s one of the lead authors on another paper in the field, which one nominator called “a rare achievement” for someone so early into their research career.

Chan is helping others excel in the field, too. He volunteered at summer camp using a unique Lego­-based robotics exercise to help children grasp complex concepts.

“Stanley is highly dedicated to mentoring other students and believes in the value of outreach to a scientist, concerned citizen and leader,” said a nominator.

“Stanley’s core chemical engineering GPA of 3.93 shows that he is superb academically,” said another nominator. “His GPA and technical skill show great promise in future academic work, including graduate school.”

Last Updated April 20, 2016