Kenyan Student in America Wins Prestigious Science Award, Earns Praise From Peers

Kenyan student, Victor Kariuki was the recipient of the "2016 Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research-Chemistry", conferred by State University of New York at Binghamton, awarded on March 28, 2017. This award is in recognition of outstanding performance in graduate study and significant contribution to institutional quality through research and authorship.Kariuki is a PhD student specializing in Analytical Chemistry-Environmental Chemistry and Nanotechnology.His professor, Wunmi Sadik described Victor as a highly motivated, independent, diligent and exceptionally productive researcher.“He has shown impressive originality and productivity of his work in terms of experimental designs, structure characterization skills and analytical approaches. He has made significant contributions to fundamental understanding of the potential synergy between conducting polymers and metal nanoparticles, and the potential utilization of such materials for sensing purposes,” read the professor’s recommendation.Kariuki who finished his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Nairobi with a First Class Honors, joined the State University of New York Binghamton in 2012.He has authored or co-authored 9 peer-reviewed scientific publications and a chapter in a book. He has given presentations at the national and international conferences, notably, the Gordon Research Seminars (GRS).His publications have appeared in well-regarded journals such as The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (I.F-4.509), ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (I.F-5.267), and Environmental Science: Nano (I.F-5.896), Journal of Hazardous Materials (I.F-5.641), Analyst (I.F-4.033), RSC Advances (I.F-3.289) and Science of The Total Environment ((I.F-4.317).