The Council of the Polish-American Fulbright Commission and J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board awarded Prof. Mirosława El Fray from the Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, Department of Polymer and Biomaterials Science, the Fulbright STEM Impact Award 2019. In total, 22 applicants took part in the competition and as the result of the competition procedure, including the substantive assessment of the application prepared by 3 independent experts and an interview with candidates whose applications received the highest marks, 5 scholarship awards were granted. The host institution of Prof. El Fray during the 4-week scholarship will be The Ohio State University, OH and the team of Prof. Judit E. Puskas from Biomacromolecular Engineering Research Group.
Project titled "Green polymers via enzymatic catalysis" will be focused on experimental work on the synthesis of new polymeric materials with the use of enzymes as natural catalysts. The project will be carried out at The Ohio State University, OH, in the team of Prof. Judit E. Puskas, an outstanding specialist in the field of macromolecular materials chemistry and engineering, and advanced analytical methods used for their structure and properties characterization. Prof. El Fray will also give seminars and lectures indicating an importance of "green polymers" for the development of medical devices. The scholarship will create an opportunity to gain access to the advanced research infrastructure and strengthen the position of prof. El Fray in the scientific world-wide network. It will be also important in reinforcing the role of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) science and research. The grant will last 4 weeks.