ME master’s student Ashton Archer has been voted vice president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS).
Archer replaces outgoing vice president Bharat Agrawal who announced on Nov. 28 he would step down because of “health issues.” Archer along with fellow senator Niloo Parvin were nominated to fill the vacant seat and Archer won with 66 percent of the vote. Despite her extensive experience in the lab, she said she sees her role as a mechanical engineer as involving more than just research.
“It is very important for people to contribute to their community and field, and that isn’t always with research,” she said. “Being involved with committees and professional organizations is just as important as the research we do. It is not enough to have technical expertise in industry, government, or academia. You really need to be able to work with people and be able to adapt to the changing environment outside of a laboratory.”
Archer has been a graduate student and a research assistant at Iowa State since 2014. Her research interests include “thermal management, heat transfer, thermodynamics, microfluidics, and/or energy systems.” She holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Kansas State University where she also served as an undergraduate research assistant.