Dr. Meagan Elinski has received $120,000 for the pursuit of her research entitled “Chemical-Mechanical Control Over Nanoparticle-Hydrogel Sliding Interfaces.”
Assistant professor of Chemistry at Hope College Dr. Meagan Elinski has recently been named a 2024 Cottrell Scholar. The Cottrell Scholar program is an initiative of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, which is a private foundation that focuses on advancing scientific research through providing funding.
According to an article on Hope College’s website, Dr. Elinski described the research she will be conducting thanks to funding from the Cottrell Scholar Award, saying, “Surface forces, intermolecular interactions, and chemical reactions influence the sliding behavior of surfaces in relative motion. Nanoparticles are promising candidates as direct therapeutics and delivery systems for osteoarthritis treatments, primarily via intraarticular injection, but little is known about the impact on sliding behavior for a soft material surface like cartilage that would be encountered in a joint.”
Dr. Elinski has thus far had a successful career, having graduated from Hope College herself in 2013. After completing a doctorate at Texas A&M University and a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Elinski returned to Hope College in 2020 where she is currently an assistant professor of Chemistry.
Dr. Elinski was awarded a “10 Under 10 Award” by the Hope Alumni Association for her success as a Hope graduate within the first decade after graduating. Her other awards include a Texas A&M U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship for Research and Teaching and a Postdoctoral Academic Diversity Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania.
The work Dr. Elinski will be continuing thanks to the grant from the Cottrell Scholar Award will be done in collaboration with her students. Her students work with her part time during the school year and full time during the summers.
Dr. Elinski is not the only faculty member from Hope College to have been chosen for the Cottrell Scholar Award. In 2006, Dr. Jason Gillmore won the award, and in 2008, Dr. Jeffrey Johnson. Both of the previous recipients are current members of Hope College’s Chemistry faculty, along with Dr. Elinski.
For more information about Hope College, visit the school’s website.