Author: Roya Akrami ’26

(Golden, CO, October 2025) Emma Gjester’s poster, Chalcogen-Bonded Conductive Networks, was awarded a third place tie out of fifty-six at Mines’ Fall 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium. But how did Gjester, an Engineering Physics major, manage to win over the judges while presenting something completely outside of her field?

Gjester worked thirty-five hours a week during the summer before the symposium, hunched over a nitrogen glovebox vacuum chamber and organic solutions. Her palms sweated in her nylon rubber gloves as she handled chemicals that could easily absorb into her bloodstream upon touch. She was not used to working in an environment that required so much attention to detail. Any previous labs she had worked in were for course completion—low-risk, albeit complicated, projects.

As a freshman, Gjester only had AP Chemistry to go off of when deliberating on her dream major, so she chose Chemistry. However, when Gjester took her first Physics class at Mines, she realized she had found her true passion. She contemplated integrating her interest in chemistry into her enthusiasm for physics. As she read research papers, literature reviews, and articles to uncover the perfect synthesis of Chemistry and Physics, she found her passion in Nuclear Physics.

Specifically, Gjester found interest in the materials science of the fuel cycles that occurred in nuclear reactors. As she read more, she developed more questions: How do fission products impact the nuclear fuels’ robustness? How do material properties that affect fuel efficiency evolve when placed under extreme conditions? How can we improve accident tolerance with cladding material innovations? These questions would go unanswered until she decided it was time to join a lab.

As a sophomore, she researched countless professors and developed a list of principal investigators to cold-email. She was excited to receive a response from Professor Mike McGuirk, who agreed to begin training her for her Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Soon enough, she was adopted as a research assistant for the McGuirk Lab, PhD student Hannah Martin, and Assistant Professor Dr. Eckstein. But summer would be when the real work began.

Spending seven hours a day in the lab wasn’t easy. Gjester found herself in a routine where she would characterize the synthesis of the molecule she was working with. This was done through combining undisclosable powdered substances, which would cause the molecules to crystallize. Then, she would ultimately deactivate the crystals.

“Every day I would try to characterize the synthesis of the molecule I was working with by combining different powdered substances. This would lead to their crystallization, and I would come in to deactivate the crystals.”

But for Gjester, the stress was worth it. She was developing her own project, Chalcogen-Bonded Conductive Networks. It dealt with materials science, which wasn’t her major, but she tackled the study perfectly. It all paid off during the Mines 2024 Fall Symposium, when she excelled at her presentation.

Although the major change had delayed her graduation by another year, Gjester didn’t hesitate to say, “I don’t regret the extra time it’s taking me to complete my degree. I actually feel like I have an advantage because I’m learning more about what I actually want to do.”

Gjester hopes to one day work at Idaho National Laboratory, where she can continue researching Nuclear Physics.

Learn more about the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship here.