Marilyn Minus
Even while growing up in the island paradise of the Bahamas, Marilyn Minus always knew she wanted to be an engineer. What she didn't know was that one day she would be an award-winning presenter and researcher as a Ph.D. student at one of the most prestigious engineering schools in the world.
"Growing up I loved my science classes," says Minus, who discovered Georgia Tech after following her brother to the state of Georgia after graduating from high school. "I always wanted to be an engineer."
Georgia Tech's School of Polymer, Textile & Fiber Engineering (PTFE) gave her the opportunity to do so. Minus, who entered Tech as a mechanical engineering major, switched to PTFE after only one semester. "I wanted something more specific," explains Minus of her change in major. "PTFE allows me to look at polymers and apply mechanical aspects to them, which I've always been interested in doing." She enjoyed her PTFE studies so much that months after she graduated from Tech with a B.S. degree in 2002, she returned to pursue a Ph.D. degree.
She now studies the characterization of polymer single-walled carbon nanotube composites. "It's an interesting project," says Minus, who researches the composites' crystallization behavior and mechanical properties to determine the materials' morphology using x-ray diffraction, dynamic and mechanical analysis, and electron microscopy. "With these specific techniques, I can determine if those carbon nanotubes have an effect on the polymers," she explains. "If we can improve the polymers, we can make high-strength materials." Her work has future applications in next-generation composites in a variety of fields, from aerospace engineering and the defense sector to sporting equipment.
She's already receiving national attention for her research. Minus has won first place in several competitions, including the American Society for Composites' 2004 Poster Competition, the 2005 Techsymposium Graduate Research Oral Presentation, the National Textile Center's 2005 Forum Student Speaking Competition, and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process 2005 University Research Symposium's Technical Conference and Exhibition. She was also nominated to give a talk at the 2006 spring American Chemical Society Meeting as a part of the Excellence in Graduate Research Symposium sponsored by the American Chemical Society Division of Polymer Chemistry.