The Chemical Engineering Department would like to congratulate undergraduate student, Dylan Turpeinen, on receiving a Portage Health Undergraduate Scholarship. Dylan is a local undergraduate student at Michigan Technological University. He graduated from Houghton High School in 2012 and decided to stay in the Houghton area to pursue a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering. In addition to classes, he enjoys performing undergraduate research with Dr. Heldt and Dr. King, and also actively participates on the MTU Men’s Club Soccer Team.
Dylan’s interest in biomedical engineering began when he was recruited to perform undergraduate research with Dr. Heldt in her Bioseparations Laboratory. He worked on fabricating and testing graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/cellulose biosensors. During the summer semester of 2014, he was able to share his enthusiasm for biosensors with Summer Youth Program (SYP) participants. The SYP project utilized a multi-meter and biosensor to identify proteins using a relation between the surface resistance of the graphene paper, and the concentration of proteins in solution to find the molecular weight for an unknown protein. Starting in the summer of 2016, he will begin graduate research work with Dr. Heldt on biosensors to detect malaria.