Congratulations to Jacob Florian, U-M's newest Churchill Scholar! Jacob is a College of Engineering student majoring in Chemical Engineering BSE with a Mathematics minor (Winter 2021).
Established in 1963, the Churchill Scholarship funds one year of graduate research and study in a STEM field at the University of Cambridge. This year, 16 Churchill Scholars were selected from a pool of 125 candidates nominated by 80 Participating Institutions.
While at U-M, Jacob has been a member of Bryan Goldsmith's computational catalysis lab since 2018. He is currently studying the V2+/V3+ reaction in acidic electrolytes for vanadium redox flow batteries in collaboration with Nirala Singh's lab. During summer 2019, Jacob completed an Amgen REU at Harvard in Cynthia Friend's lab studying bimetallic nanoparticles.
Last year, Jacob was nominated by the U-M STEM Research Career Award Selection Committee for the Goldwater Scholarship and the Astronaut Scholarship. He was selected as both a Goldwater Scholar and an Astronaut Scholar.
Jacob advises future Churchill Scholarship applicants to spend time on their application, even if there's a chance of rejection. "It's important to show that you are excited about your work/research and to connect it to a problem people are familiar with."
For Jacob, the Churchill Scholarship offers him both the opportunity to spend a year doing research at Cambridge along with the freedom to pursue his interests. After completing his MPhil in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Cambridge, Jacob plans to pursue a PhD in Chemical Engineering.
Jacob thanks Bryan Goldsmith and Nirala Singh for their continued support.
Students in interested in Churchill Scholarship can learn more here or email onsf.info@umich.edu.
