Nicholas Boynton, a graduate student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME), has received an inaugural Inflection Award, which celebrates the achievements of PhD students working on solutions to climate change.
The award, organized by climate tech venture studio Marble, was given to only 30 PhD students worldwide. The winners traveled to an exclusive two-day event in Paris in March that included talks, workshops, and an awards ceremony.
“It’s a testament to PME and my mentors,” said Boynton, who is advised by UChicago PME Profs. Shrayesh Patel and Stuart Rowan. “I’m energized by meeting people who are passionate about sustainability and the wide range of science they are using to create solutions.”
“I am heartened to see Nick receive the Inflection Award,” Patel said. “This highly selective award recognizes his field-defining research in pluripotent plastics and its impact on sustainability. All credit goes to him for his hard work and perseverance."
“Nick’s innovative thinking has helped us start to re-think how we access and reuse plastics,” Rowan said. “This award is a testament to his hard work where he focused on designing one source material that can be used to access a range of different plastic materials.”
The award tops off Boynton’s career as a graduate student, where he worked at the intersection of polymer science and electrochemistry to rethink how we make and reuse plastics. Five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are from the lifecycle of plastics, and only 9 percent of plastics are recycled. Microplastics in the environment can even accumulate in our bodies—a recent study showed that the amount of microplastics in our brain is the same weight as a plastic spoon.
“We don’t know the exact health consequences of this, but we know it’s bad,” Boynton said. “And from an economic perspective, we lose $100 billion a year from not recycling plastics.”
As a graduate student, Boynton helped develop a “pluripotent plastic”: a new polymer that can made into several different materials. It could, for example, be heated to become a hard, high-strength material, or heated more so it becomes a flexible, rubber band-like material. It can then be reversed to one with different properties. This allows for on-demand reuse of the material and could open the door to different approaches to plastic recycling.
As he finishes his thesis, Boynton is considering a career that combines basic scientific research with the commercialization necessary for it to have impact.
“Being at PME has shown me that it’s possible to create materials that are both sustainable and cheaper to use,” he said. “It’s a challenge, but it’s one that we have to try to tackle.”