Catherine Snyder
PhD
Materials Science & Engineering
Expected Graduation Date: May 2020
University of Michigan
PhD
Materials Science & Engineering
Expected Graduation Date: May 2020
University of Michigan
If you were at WE19 or WE Local Raleigh, you may have seen Catherine Snyder presenting her research!
Catherine has been a member of SWE since 2015 and has been involved with the University of Michigan GradSWE group since 2015. She has served as one of three outreach co-chairs for the Michigan GradSWE group over the past four years. During this time, Catherine initiated her own project in partnership with the Girl Scouts of America in order to bring STEM activities to young girls in our local community. Her initiative and involvement has reached over 200 scouts, significantly strengthening GradSWE’s impact in fostering STEM interest in underrepresented groups. Through her four-year tenure, she has held six multiday events and over 10 single day events, some of which had attendances of more than 50 scouts. Additionally Catherine has developed a 4 week engineering program for elementary school students at low budget schools in the surrounding areas which usually reaches 1-3 classrooms each semester.
In addition to being selected to participate in the 2019 Collegiate Competition at the SWE Annual Conference, Catherine was recently awarded 2nd place in the Collegiate Competition at WE Local Raleigh. Catherine’s work inside and outside the lab was recognized when she received the 2019 Scholar-Activist Award from the University of Michigan which recognizes a student who has excelled academically and has been active in their service to the community.
Thesis Topic: Developing Polymer Nanoparticles for Ovarian Cancer Drug Delivery
Catherine’s research works to improve nanoparticle delivery systems particularly for ovarian cancer drug delivery. Current nanoparticle delivery systems have poor delivery efficiencies and her work is focused on improving the effectiveness of polymer nanoparticles through three methods: 1) Developing a new method to fabricate polymer nanoparticles in order to systematically study the effect of nanoparticle properties in vivo. 2) Fabricating polymer nanoparticles for the co-delivery of two drugs in order to prevent carcinoma associated mesenchymal stem cells from assisting cancer stem cells in becoming more chemoresistant and metastatic. 3) Exploration of novel chemotherapeutics to have a more targeted delivery of cancerous cells.
After completing her PhD, Catherine hopes to work in R&D for a medical device company. Specifically, she would like to work on designing and developing polymer materials for medical applications.
Fun Fact: Catherine likes to work on wire and metal-smithing jewelry and sculptures.
Instagram: @thewanderingmetalsmith
