On May 5, Texas ChE celebrated the department’s most recent graduates: students who graduated in fall 2022, spring 2023 and those who will graduate in the summer 2023.
Professor Venkat Ganesan, associate chair, welcomed pre-commencement speaker Dana Sellers, B.S. ’75, along with students and their families, faculty and staff to the celebratory reception by remarking on their collegiate journey. More than 190 students navigated their college career at UT Austin during a global pandemic where in-person classes and everyday life was abruptly interrupted. The graduating class of 2023 is poised to persevere against great odds. The McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering is proud of their accomplishments and is excited for their journeys as they set out to change the world.
Photos from the graduate reception can be found on our Flickr page.
Three students were specifically called out for their achievements:
Rase Brothers Award
Dominic Galiano
The Rase Brothers Award is given to the highest GPA graduating senior who came to the department as a freshman and finished the program in four years, and is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.
Dominic Galiano, originally from Bowie, Maryland, has been a member of Theta Tau, a co-ed professional engineering fraternity for four years. During that time, he served as professional development chair for one year and treasurer for one year. He has had two internships: Air Liquide in Summer 2021, Los Angeles Area. One in process engineering at a steam methane reformer making hydrogen. His second internship was at Samsung Austin Semiconductor, also in process engineering. Dominic will be traveling Europe this summer, and then will start a full-time job in cloud computing in August working for Deloitte as a Software Engineer in their Boston office.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Anastacia Marie Mercado De Gorostiza
Matthew Santoso
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships support outstanding graduate students pursuing full-time research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Anastacia Marie Mercado De Gorostiza grew up in the Philippines, and immigrated to the U.S. when she was 7. She attended Leander High School in Austin, TX, where she completed her International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. During her time at UT Austin, she has worked in a variety of research groups at the interface of material science, chemistry, and chemical engineering. For the past four years, she has worked under Professor Brian Korgel, investigating the synthesis and stability of lead halide perovskite nanocrystals as they apply to solar cell applications. As a part of the Electronic Materials Research Group at MIT DMSE, she has worked on collaborations with research groups at UT Austin and MIT on the fabrication of improved photonic sensors for biological and chemical applications. Anastacia is involved in AIChE, serving in various officer positions in UT Austin's student chapter. Starting Fall 2023, Anastacia will be attending ETH Zürich to pursue a Masters in Material Science with plans to pursue a PhD in material science at ETH.
Matthew Santoso grew up in Austin, Texas, where he attended Westlake High School. As an undergraduate researcher in Professor Benny Freeman and Joan Brennecke’s labs, he characterized microstructures in asymmetric gas separation membranes to improve their performance. Additionally, he worked in Assistant Professor Adrianne Rosales’ lab to automate the classification of myofibroblast activation. Matthew enjoys playing the violin in the Engineering Chamber Orchestra, trying new foods, and traveling with his family. He will attend UC Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in Fall 2023.
