Jiajia Wu Wins Best Student Paper Award at MPD Conference

Jiajia Wu, who recently graduated with her PhD in MGE, won the Best Student Paper Award at the Minerals Processing and Metallurgy Division of Colorado meeting for her paper, "A novel approach of leaching LiCoO2 in mildly acidic glycine-sodium metabisulfite system." The paper focused on environmentally friendly techniques to recycle lithium ion batteries, and also came with a $3,000 prize.

Her adviser, associate professor Jaeheon Lee, said the conference, part of a subsection of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, is one of the most important events in the metallurgy community. Due to COVID-19 travel complications, he traveled the 900 miles to Colorado by car, but he said the trip was worth it.

"There are many colleagues from industry and academia with world-class expertise in extractive metallurgy and mineral processing," he said. "I spoke with a few colleagues and introduced Jiajia to them during the conference. She talked with a few people, and guess what? She got a job offer."

Wu accepted the position and is now working as a metallurgical R&D engineer at Forte Analytical in Fort Collins, Colorado.

"This is definitely the best graduation gift," Wu said. "I spent a lot of time on the spent lithium-ion battery recycling project, and every effort pays off. This would not have been possible without the guidance and support from my advisor, Dr. Lee. It is undoubtedly a rewarding experience to establish contact with excellent metallurgists and also get a job opportunity to start my career."

Wu also earned first place in the conference's 2019 graduate student poster contest.