5XÉçÇø

While most 18-year-olds are finishing up their high school requirements for graduation and making plans to attend college or applying for jobs, a few exceptional students like Benjamin Mudrak are simply way ahead of their peers in their academic pursuits.

Jacob Grant, 5XÉçÇø student, is a senior aerospace engineering major with a minor in physics. Grant graduated from Edison High School in Milan, OH in 2017. After a late medical disqualification from the Air Force Academy, he chose to attend 5XÉçÇø. Grant is a third generation 5XÉçÇø Honors College student. His grandmother studied Spanish at Kent State and his mother studied education. Both were members of the Honors College.

5XÉçÇø has recently received a flurry of grants totaling more than $3 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which will support research and innovation in a wide range of fields within the College of Arts and Sciences. 

There are just a handful of chemists worldwide with h-indices above 200. The h-indices of chemists awarded the Nobel Prize during the last five years range from about 30 to 160. Mietek Jaroniec, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has an h-index of 125, which places him among the top chemists worldwide.

For students going into the medical research field, having a chance to learn, succeed, fail and be inspired under the supervision of an accomplished researcher during their education is a priceless experience. This experiential learning would not be possible without outside funding, and now, students in Manabu Kurokawa’s lab can elevate their efforts thanks to a grant awarded to the group.