Luc Wetherbee earns NSF Circularity Impact Program Fellowship
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (4/4/2025) – Department of Chemistry PhD candidate Luc Wetherbee recently earned a fellowship for the Circularity Impact Program: A National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship at the University of Minnesota. The Circularity Impact Program allows trainees to deeply explore sustainability problems and remediations in public policy, science, and engineering.
Wetherbee, a graduate student in Professor Jessica’s Lamb group, says he is interested in using fundamental chemistry to address sustainability challenges. “I use organic synthesis tools to make bespoke materials with unique polymerization reactivities, and that can teach us a lot about how to synthesize next-generation plastics that are, for example, chemically recyclable!” he says. “I’m working with chemically recyclable polyurethanes; while most plastics nowadays are mechanically recycled, which degrades the polymers’ physical properties, polymer scientists have been exploring chemical recycling as a means of achieving ‘true’ materials circularity where plastic products can be converted back to the monomers used to make those plastics. In addition, polyurethanes are one of the large classes of commercial plastics that is typically not recyclable.” Through the Circularity Impact Program, Wetherbee will have the opportunity to study sustainable practices in a highly interdisciplinary environment with other graduate students from units like Computer Science, Environmental Engineering, and Natural Resource and Science Management.
After completing his undergraduate studies at Cornell University in 2021, Wetherbee joined the Department of Chemistry in Fall 2023. As a member of the Lamb Lab, he conducts research at the intersection of polymer science and organic chemistry. Just last month, Wetherbee presented his research at the National Graduate Research Polymer Conference hosted by Arizona State University. “There are lots of graduate researchers in the sustainable polymer world as well as speakers both in academia and industry, so this was a huge opportunity for me to network, practice scientific communication, get new perspectives on polymer research to inform my own work, and situate myself in the professional field so I can better imagine what a career could look like past grad school.”
More about the Circularity Impact Program
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Circularity Impact Program supports policy and STEM graduate students in understanding and engaging in sustainability problems and remediations from different perspectives through graduate coursework, internships, and community engagement experiences led by an Artist in Residence. The Circularity Impact Program trains graduate students in the circular use of water, energy, and materials and integrates the studies of policy, engineering, and science. This interdisciplinary program seeks to educate a new generation of circularity professionals through a combination of internships, cutting-edge research, and community and classroom interactions led by an Artist-in-Residence to enhance the trainees’ positive societal impact through critical reflection, creative collaboration, and social engagement. These training efforts will benefit society by leading to new technologies, policy and economic instruments, methods, and implementation strategies for the circular use of resources. (From the NSF Research Traineeship: Circularity Impact Program website)