Mandar Kathe receives mentoring award
The Office of Student Academic Success-Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry has selected Mandar Kathe for the 2019 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award. The award, first implemented last year, honors individuals who have demonstrated success in mentoring undergraduates in their research and/or creative inquiry endeavors. Awardees are nominated by undergraduates.
Dr. Kathe first began mentoring students while pursuing his doctorate under Professor L.-S. Fan. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in 2016 and becoming a post-doc, he has continued helping students in Dr. Fan's laboratory learn the ins and outs of research -- more than sixteen students to date.
Under his tutelage, undergraduate researchers have filed three patent applications, published four journal papers, and won 19 research awards, including two at national-level competitions and eight at university-level competitions like the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum.
"It is exciting to mentor motivated young undergrads, as their creative insights are fresh and unburdened by conventional research-based thinking methods in chemical engineering," Kathe said. "My approach has been to teach the basic principles of chemical looping systems to these students and then provide these students the confidence and encouragement to function as independent researchers in the field.The direct growth of research skills one witnesses in these students is very rewarding."
Kathe's nominator, Mike Petrecca, was excited about his nominee winning and said, “I had Mandar as a TA for a class. He saw that I was more than my GPA and hired me on in Dr. L.-S. Fan’s Lab. Ever since then he has been the catalyst behind my growth as a researcher.”
Petrecca, who currently serves as the internal vice president of Ohio State's student AIChE chapter, earned first place in the 2018 AIChE Fuels, Petrochemical and Energy Division Poster Competition, as well as the AIChE division-wide Harry West Award.
Professor and Chair Andre Palmer also received the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award.
