Congratulations to SBS Lab PhD candidate Katy Hinkelman, who recently received the Lester L. Boyer Graduate Research Scholarship for the 2022-23 academic year. Katy is a senior PhD student in the lab who has made invaluable contributions to the lab’s research on district energy systems and sustainable communities. Katy’s current research focuses on incorporating patterns and processes found in nature, a technique called biomimicry, into energy distribution networks. Biomimicry has been adopted in many engineering fields and Katy is helping to pioneer its use in the building and energy sectors. Katy, like Dr. Boyer, also started her own family during graduate school.
We thank the late Dr. Boyer and the Penn State Architectural Engineering program for their generous support. We are very grateful.