Honorable Mention: Understanding Carbs

Photography by Andrienne Martin, graduate student,
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Calcite Relativity: My thesis research involves using calcite (CaCO3) and celestite (SrSO4) model systems to better understand biomineral formation in the presence of carbohydrates. The goal of which is to learn more about the mechanism of polysaccharide incorporation into crystals as well as the relationship between the mechanical properties of a crystal and its structural organization. The research focuses on the role the respective carbohydrate’s chemistry plays in regulating biomolecule incorporation into a crystal, such as calcite and L-aspartic acid, which were used here. To help visualize this crystallization process, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) — an electron-beam technique that provides the crystal morphology and size distribution — was utilized and the original SEM image has been used here.