2018 Eastman Cellulose Fellowship Winner

Derek Corbett graduated in 2012 from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) with a degree in Bioprocess Engineering and a minor in Chemistry. He completed his Master’s degree in the same department in 2016 and is now beginning the third year of his Ph.D. at NC State University.

Derek has spent all of his upper education in paper science and engineering related fields – in undergrad, he interned at Northern Biodiesel and did research on flavonoid extraction from wood for pharmaceutical applications. After graduation, he spent a year researching the extraction, characterization, and utilization of lignin with a focus on liquid hot water extraction pretreatment technology. When he started as a Masters student, he worked in a New York RockTenn water recycling facility and did a significant amount of research on catalytic fast pyrolysis of biorefinery derived lignins at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

An Annual Award and an Honor Indeed

Currently, Derek is studying an industrially feasible process for the purification of xylooligosaccharides from wood autohydrolyzates for use as a prebiotic health supplement. It is this research that lead to Derek being selected for the “Eastman Grant or Fellowship for Cellulose based research.” This award is presented annually by Eastman Chemical Company through a competitive application process for graduate students in the fields of “cellulose-related chemistry, pulp science and/or characterization.” This award is a stipend that supports the student’s research and recognizes the student’s achievement in their field. Congratulations Derek!

“This award is a huge honor and a great motivation for me, especially being from a company like Eastman,” says Derek. “My main career goal is to work for a company (like Eastman) innovating new products and processes that utilize lignocellulosic resources and that have an overall positive impact on the world in general. The stipend itself will definitely help me pursue the research that I am interested in pursuing. It will help support travel to academic conferences where I can share my research and network with potential employers. But most importantly I see this award as an affirmation that the research I am doing is meaningful and important outside of academia.”

Driven Professors Lead by Example

Derek wants to thank his advisors,Drs. Sunkyu Park , Rich Venditti and Hasan Jameel. “I have been incredibly fortunate with the advisors that I have had throughout my graduate education. They have encouraged me to work hard, take risks, and have criticized and pushed me to improve while also understanding that I am human.”

While Derek’s achievements in the laboratory are remarkable, he manages to stay involved in a wide variety of extracurricular activities. He’s a talented athlete, gifted musician, accomplished dancer, and an airplane pilot. He spends most of his free time at the Triangle Curling Club in Durham as a developmental coach for all ages and curls competitively in Canada and the U.S. He travels to the Chapel Hill Ballet School once a week to tap dance, plays intermural soccer with his friends, and has also taken a recent interest in Ultimate Frisbee.

by student blooger Manon Macallister