To extend the success of his superb Iowa State undergraduate career, 2011 chemical and biological engineering (CBE) graduate Elliot Combs received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. He will use the award for his Ph.D. studies at the University of Minnesota.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provides Combs three years of support, which includes a $30,000 per year stipend and up to $12,000 per year for tuition, research expenses and travel expenses. The fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who pursue research-based master’s or doctoral degrees in fields with NSF’s mission to “keep the United States at the leading edge of discovery.”
As an undergraduate, Combs immersed himself in biorenewable chemical and fuel research. Within four semesters and three summers, he acquired research and industry experience at the U.S. Department of Energy Ames Laboratory, Cargill in Des Moines, and the Fritz-Haber Institute in Berlin, Germany.
As president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Iowa State chapter, he organized the 2010 Mid-America AIChE Conference. Combs was also a Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society) member and a recipient of the Dow Chemical Company Scholarship. He has moderated the Ames Laboratory high school Science Bowl since 2007. At graduation in fall 2011 he garnered CBE’s Lawrence E. Burkhart Outstanding Senior Award.
Mike and Jean Steffenson Professor Brent Shanks saw Combs’ potential as his mentor. “He is driven to excellence,” Shanks says. “He earned the NSF Fellowship by getting himself involved in so many engineering activities as an undergrad.”
At the University of Minnesota, Combs hopes to advance his alternative energy research through photovoltaics. Photovoltaics involves the engineering of materials used in solar energy production.
Combs is one of four from Iowa State to earn the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and only one of two from Iowa State College of Engineering.