HYDE PARK — Paulina Rincon-Delgadillo is the first University of Chicago student to graduate with a Ph.D. in engineering.
Rincon-Delgadillo was awarded a doctorate in molecular engineering on Saturday, the first graduate of the university’s Institute of Molecular Engineering.
“One of the most amazing things about Paulina is her adventurous spirit,” said Paul Nealey, a professor in molecular engineering.
Rincon-Delgadillo got a head start at the institute, which launched in 2011 and started offering doctorate degrees only last year. She was a student under Nealy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he was recruited to the University of Chicago.
She graduated after defending her dissertation, “Origin of Defects in Directed Self-Assembly Of Block Copolymers Using Feature Multiplication.”
Rincon-Delgadillo is also pursuing a doctorate in electrical engineering at Belgium’s Catholic University of Leuven. In Belgium, she assists in Nealy’s work on transistor fabrication in Belgium for Imec.
The Institute of Molecular Engineering began offering its first undergraduate courses this year.
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