
March 2021
Caleb was honored with the Newnham Award for Research Excellence from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State

December 2020
Yoshi has been selected as the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences student marshal for the University's Fall 2020 commencement ceremony. News story

June 2020
Nabila won second place at the PPG Elevator Pitch Competition for a pitch on her research related to laser direct writing

April 2020
Amy has been selected for a Benkovic Summer Undergraduate Research Award

January 2020
Shannon McGee was awarded the $4K Continuing Graduate Student TA Award in Spring 2020 to continue her proposed project from Fall ‘19 of creating safety and technique videos for organic lab courses CHEM 213W and 203 with a heavy focus on instrumentation, sample preparation, and spectral analysis.

October 2019
Ashley and Sonic showcased their work on iridescent structural color at the Science Writers conference.

August 2019
Shannon McGee was awarded a fall 2019 $4k Continuing Graduate TA award for her proposal to create lab technique and safety videos that would be uploaded on Canvas prior to the lab period for organic 203 and 213W lab courses. These videos would demonstrate relevant safety practices and techniques to the students for the upcoming lab period before they arrive so they can be more prepared and see how a more experienced TA approaches the experiment.

July 2019
Congrats to Ashley on her McNair Scholars research presentation

April 2019
Amy wins 1st place in the Materials Visualization Competition and the Robert E. Newnham Award for Research Excellence

March 2019
Alex was selected for the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award from the Graduate School

November 2018
Lauren was selected for an Army-ECASE (Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers). Penn State News story

July 2018
Sonic volunteered as a science mentor for BBVS (Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services) Summer Academy at Penn State. Here, he is mentoring students in a forensic science activity to analyze evidence gathered at a mock crime scene. He also won an award for this involvement as a science mentor.

July 2018
Caleb volunteered at the Central PA Arts fest running a booth making Oobleck (mix of cornstarch and water) demonstrating how certain fluids can have non-Newtonian viscosities. There were over 1000 kids in attendance that day.

February 2021
The Zarzar lab received support from the NSF CAREER program for their research on laser direct writing

November 2020
Lauren was among the 36 scientists and eningeers selected for a 2020 AFOSR Young Investigator Award

May 2020
Rebecca was awarded a NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) Graduate Fellowship
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March 2020
Leo was selected for an Erickson Discovery Grant

December 2019
Congrats to Ciera who received a 2018-2019 Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Award

July 2019
We shared "Structural Colors of Everyday Materials" with visitors to the PA Arts Fest at the Art of Discovery Booth

June 2019
Putting on 'Sweet Science' themed demos for participants at the 50th annual PA Special Olympics. Many students from our group signed up to volunteer at different times throughout the day.

April 2019
Lauren was selected for the Unilever Award from the ACS Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division.

March 2019
Yoshi was awarded an Erickson Discovery Grant

November 2018
At Exploration-U in Bellfonte, we showcased the properties of interfacial tension of liquids using detergents and emulsions and conducted boat races powered by spreading soap films. The event was attended by several hundred elementary-aged students and parents from the area along with other demonstrators from across STEM departments at PSU.

July 2018
Lauren was selected for the ARO Young Investigator award.

June 2020
Sonic participated in an outreach project with other PSU students in which they created videos of themselves sharing a talent or greeting and produced it into a video collage for residents at nursing homes. Their efforts were highlighted in this story.

May 2020
Ashley was honored with the Peter Craig Breen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Chemistry Research

October 2019
Lauren was awarded a Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research award at Materials Day 2019

October 2019
Our color-shifting technology won the People's Choice award at the Invent Penn State Tech Tournament

August 2019
Congrats to Wilanyi for a great REU poster presentation

July 2019
We ran a session in the 2019 Make it Matter summer camp and taught students about surfactants and emulsions

April 2019
Caleb wins 2nd place in the Materials Visualization Competition and 3rd in the MatSE poster competition

April 2019
Yoshi was awarded the George W. Brindley Award in Nonmetallic Crystal Chemistry from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

February 2019
Our group's paper is published in Nature and featured on the cover. See the PSU News article and C&EN video

October 2018
Lauren was selected for an ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator grant

July 2018
The Zarzar group designed and led activities at the Make It Matter summer camp at Penn State. The activies taught high school students about surface tension, surfactants, and emulsions, and how that fundamental science relates to the current research on responsive fluids in the lab.