Tiffany Sill ’22, a Ph.D. candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University, has been selected to receive a 2024 P.E.O. Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood in support of her research and doctoral studies.
Sill, who is pursuing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry as a member of Texas A&M chemist Dr. Sarbajit Banerjee's research group, is one of 100 doctoral students across the United States and Canada honored with the prestigious $20,000 award, which was established in 1991 to provide substantial, merit-based support for deserving women in doctoral-level programs. Scholar Award recipients are a select group of women chosen for their high level of academic excellence and achievement and their potential for positive societal impact.
Women studying in any field, including medicine, law or scientific research, are eligible to apply. In order to be be considered for the award, applicants must be selected by a local P.E.O. chapter to advance to the national competition. Sill was sponsored by the College Station-based Chapter EQ.
A first-generation student and a mom of three who is originally from Grand Canyon, Ariz., Sill graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science in chemistry from California State University San Bernardino prior to coming to Texas A&M in August 2020. As an undergraduate, she created and implemented a STEM program that brought science into an afterschool program for underprivileged children in the heart of San Bernardino. In 2021, she was one of 10 students nationwide selected to attend the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) as a student representative of the American Chemical Society.
Sill's dissertation research within the Banerjee Group focuses on underpinning key design principles for informed design approaches in various energy-relevant materials, deciphering corrosion resistance mechanisms in polyetherimide coatings and engineering nanocomposite coatings to active multiple modes of protection simultaneously. Banerjee credits her for helping to advance the framework of generalizable design principles, identify selective ion sequestration and mass transport phenomena in macromolecular networks, and increase the performance and longevity of protective coatings through mechanistic understanding.
"Tiffany has persisted in STEM despite long odds, driven by nothing short of an incredible passion, a burning desire to be a role model to the broader community and a deep wellspring of taking joy in discovery," Banerjee added. "In the four years that she has spent in my laboratory, she has dazzled in every way."
The P.E.O. Sisterhood, founded January 21, 1869, at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is a philanthropic educational organization dedicated to supporting higher education for women. There are approximately 6,000 local chapters in the US and Canada with nearly a quarter of a million active members.
Learn more about P.E.O. or graduate studies in chemistry at Texas A&M.
Tiffany has persisted in STEM despite long odds, driven by nothing short of an incredible passion, a burning desire to be a role model to the broader community and a deep wellspring of taking joy in discovery. In the four years that she has spent in my laboratory, she has dazzled in every way.