Scholarship awarded to young student changing how plastics are made

Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) Undergraduate Researcher Sarah Claessens is the recipient of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) Summer Research Fellowship, awarded to a student who has helped advance CSP’s mission to transform how plastics are made.

Claessens, a senior at Gustavus Adolphus majoring in chemistry, received the $2,500 scholarship following her participating in CSP’s summer undergraduate research program. She applied to the program out of a longstanding interest in tackling plastic pollution. Over the summer, Claessens project was aimed at increasing the versatility of PLA plastics, which are made using corn starch instead of petroleum making it a biodegradable alternative.

“Plastic pollution was always something I wanted to battle, and this was something I could do to help make a change,” Claessens said. “That was definitely the most exciting part.”

Her project was aimed at making PLA plastics more flexible so they could be used in biodegradable plastic bags. The group is using citric acid to eventually create a PLA-based product that can be stretched.

Claessens found out she received the scholarship with only a week to go in the summer program, which came as a complete surprise to the Marshfield, Wisc., native.

“I was really honored and humbled that out of all the great aspiring chemists working here that I was chosen.”

MCGA awarded the scholarship this year to assist a talented CSP student researcher interested in transforming how plastics are made, including through the use of renewable resources like corn. The scholarship was part of a MCGA partnership with Gopher Sports, through which funds were raised at University of Minnesota sporting events for causes that align with MCGA initiatives.

In addition to this program, MCGA provides CSP funding for research that creates polymers derived from corn, increasing sustainability while finding new uses for the nation’s corn supply.