Yuet Ping Tai

UTC OUTSTANDING STUDENT OF THE YEAR 2001

Ms. Ping Tai with Dr. Brian Niece, professor of chemistry at Assumption College. Ping is a junior at Worcester Doherty Memorial High School.. She has joined Dr. Niece and Robert Doe, a senior chemistry major of Assumption College (not pictured) to work on the project they began last fall.

This material, student Ping Tai is holding, is used to examine electrode surface responses.

The University Transportation Center is pleased to announce the selection of Ms. Yuet Ping Tai as this year's recepient of the Student of the Year Award. Ping is our country's first high school student to receive this prestigeous recognition. With outstanding students from the nation's other thirty-two Centers, Ping will be honored by the US. Department of Transportation at a special ceremony held in Washington, D.C. on Monday, January 14, 2002.

Last year, Ping, now a senior at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, Massachusetts, worked with Dr. Brian Niece on a study of catalytic electrode surfaces for fuel cell application supported by a research grant from Assumption's UTC. This year she is continuing that research as part of the SITE internship through her school.

Ping previously served as an assistant to a senior chemistry major in ionic liquid preparation and electrochemical experiments; now, she has assumed sole responsibility for the project. She handles all aspects of the synthesis from purification of the starting materials through analysis of the final product exhibiting a better understanding of the relevant concepts than most students who have completed college chemistry. Ping has also made significant progress on the electrochemical studies of bismuth using the ionic liquid as a solvent. She has made some valuable discoveries and her mentor expresses the hope that "she may have enough data for us to submit a short publication by the end of the academic year."

In addition to her laboratory work, last spring Ping gave a presentation on her work to science classes at her high school in which she discussed electric vehicles, fuel cells, her research, and the environmental implications of fuel cell use. She will make a similar presentation this spring.

Ping is a native of Hong Kong and with her family has lived in the United States for the past nine years. After graduation, she plans to study science or engineering at the university level.