PULLMAN, Wash. – Gregory Collinge, a Washington State University chemical engineering Ph.D candidate, has received a highly selective Belgian American Educational Foundation fellowship.
Collinge, who works with professor Jean-Sabin McEwen in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, where he conducts research in computational catalytic chemistry, is among 10 Americans awarded such a fellowship.
“I’m excited to do research in Belgium,” said Collinge. “I’m also excited to be collaborating with Ghent University professor Mark Saeys. This is a great opportunity to try new ideas.”
The Belgian American Educational Foundation is the leading independent philanthropic organization supporting the exchange of university students, scientists and scholars between the United States and Belgium.
In his research Collinge is currently using computer-based simulations to better understand the fundamentals of the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis reaction. F-T synthesis is a set of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen gas into synthetic fuel and is a potential route toward petroleum-free energy.
“Greg is extremely curious and driven Ph.D. candidate,” said McEwen. “In his doctoral thesis, he is developing a realistic model of a catalyst surface, which greatly facilitates the conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to synthetic fuel. The models that he is developing will facilitate the rational design of less expensive and more selective catalysts.”
In 2017, Collinge earned a prestigious Kokes Award from the North American Catalysis Society. In 2016, he earned a National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Fellowship to conduct a two-month research project in Australia at the University of Sydney. He also received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which , provides three years of direct funding for the remainder of his Ph.D. tenure.
