Victoria Chung, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2022

Victoria (Vicki) Chung, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (WCAS), from Lawrenceville, GA, is majoring in biological sciences, with a minor in creative writing. She has a love of journalism and passion for biology and the study of life. Her ultimate goal is to attend medical school and become a pediatrician. In high school, Vicky was an AP Scholar and a National Merit Finalist. She also earned the Korean American Student Foundation Scholarship. At Northwestern she attained Dean’s List status and was awarded the Summer Undergraduate Research Assistant award. On campus, she contributes to the Northwestern News Network and does interviews for a podcast.

Jeongyoon Yeo, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2022

Jeongyoon (Cassia) Yeo, WCAS, from Fullerton, Calif., is majoring in mathematics and biological sciences. She plans on pursuing an MD/PhD program to prepare her for a career as a physician/scientist. Her goal is to become a surgical oncologist. In addition, she would like to do genetic research. Jeongyoon received the U.S. House of Representatives Certificate of Congressional Recognition as a STEM scholar in high school. She is also a recipient of the Gold Medal President’s Volunteer Service Award.

Alessandro F. Rotta Loria, Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient

Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2022

Alessandro F. Rotta Loria is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering. Rotta Loria will deploy a wireless temperature sensing network in underground environments across the Chicago Loop district that will become a living laboratory for his class “Energy Geostructures and Geosystems” (EGG – CIV_ENV_353). 

This network will provide a large set of real-world data that students in the EGG course will use to design innovative projects that can harvest renewable geothermal energy and waste thermal energy through the subsurface to meet buildings’ heating, cooling and hot water needs. These projects will be developed virtually but could be realizable immediately, with significant implications for the decarbonization of cities and the building sector at large. In support of this undertaking, Rotta Loria will provide students with cross-disciplinary competence in mechanics, energy and data science.

Rotta Loria’s research is at the intersection of geomechanics, energy and environmental sustainability. His goal is to understand the properties and behavior of soils, rocks, concrete and system thereof in the context of geological energy production and storage.

Northwestern Now, January 31, 2022 | By Lila Reynolds

Heather Pinkett, Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient

Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2022

Heather Pinkett, the Irving M. Klotz Research Professor and associate professor of molecular biosciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, will create modules with students that highlight the professional stories of scientists with diverse backgrounds, particularly emphasizing scientists currently working in the field. 

Pinkett’s work will build on an existing biochemistry class, giving students additional opportunities to teach and learn from their classmates as well as implement changes to future curricula.

The project, called the Northwestern University Teach One Reach One project, or NU-TORO for short, promotes inclusion in STEM curriculum and gives students agency to reform STEM curriculum alongside their professor. By implementing a resource that highlights new connections between textbooks and contemporary research that traditional coursework may not allow, NU-TORO offers students different perspectives on the feasibility of careers in STEM.

Pinkett also will launch the NU-TORO website nationwide as a template for other educators to increase their own curriculum inclusivity, providing references and other resources.

The Pinkett lab looks at the way nutrients, antibiotics and chemotherapeutics are transported into and out of the cell, with an interest in ABC transporters, proteins that use ATP hydrolysis to move substrates across cell membranes.

Pinkett is an expert in ABC transporters, transcriptional regulation and host-pathogen interactions, and is also a member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute.Pinkett is an expert in ABC transporters, transcriptional regulation and host-pathogen interactions, and is also a member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute.

Northwestern Now, January 31, 2022 | By Lila Reynolds