necstlab is delighted to host 2018 MRL Summer Scholar Abigail Nason, who is a visiting undergraduate student researcher from the University of Florida, where she is pursuing a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering. Abby is working with necstlab members Reed Kopp and Nathan Fritz (SM '16) to objectively characterize the 3D morphology and spatial distribution of tow-aligned resin pockets, which potentially may be prepreg manufacturing defects, appearing in the interlaminar regions of aerospace-grade nanoengineered hierarchical composite laminates. For this project, which complements a broader study of composite laminate constituent morphology and manufacturing defects, Abby is performing state-of-the-art high-resolution, non-destructive, large field-of-view X-ray microtomographic imaging of several composite material configurations and implementing automated interlaminar analysis tools developed by Fritz to analyze extremely large datasets.  Outside of school, Abby enjoys reading, swimming, and hiking. 

The Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) sponsors the annual Summer Scholars research internship program through the National Science Foundation's (NSF)  Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) programs. The program started in 1983 and has brought hundreds of the best science and engineering undergraduates in the country to MIT for graduate-level materials research. This year’s program runs from June 17 to August 11, 2018.