Newfound Ambition Fuels Young Chemical Engineer

“Although he never got his degree, my father was always interested in science and knew more than a lot of college-educated people,” Bryan said. “When I was in high school, he bought me an 8-inch Newtonian Reflector with an Equatorial mount, a big telescope. Seeing galaxies and star clusters was mind-blowing.”

In high school, Bryan enrolled in an honors chemistry course that only reinforced his love of scientific inquiry. His father had told him that advanced chemistry was horrible, so he entered his first class tentatively.

“The teacher argued that chemistry is really just the study of the interactions of atoms, and atoms make up everything, so chemistry is absolutely fundamental to everything,” he recalls. “These words won me over.”

Bryan now works with Dr. Laura Wasylenki, a research scientist in the School of Earth and Science Exploration at ASU. Together, they conduct research in the study of isotope effects on environmental systems at the W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry, a mass spectrometry facility in the basement of the Physical Sciences building.

“Isotopes of any given element have the same number of protons in their nuclei but a different number of neutrons, which results in a mass difference,” he explains. “An isotope fractionation occurs when the isotopes of an element behave differently during a chemical reaction because they have slightly different atomic masses.”

Bryan and Dr. Wasylenki are studying how isotopes of the metal molybdenum (Mo) fractionate during adsorption to manganese (Mn) oxide particles because such adsorption happens on the ocean floor and governs the Mo isotope composition of seawater and ocean sediments. Once this phenomenon is understood in the laboratory, the results will aid interpretation of isotope signatures recorded in ancient ocean sediments.

Bryan’s specific role in the project involves varying temperature and salinity to see how they affect the isotopic fractionation. “Basically, I create test-tube experiments using a solution of dissolved Mo and Mn oxide particles that I synthesize,” he explains. “The samples are analyzed with a mass spectrometer to measure precisely the ratio of Mo isotopes relative to a known standard.”

When the research is complete, Bryan and his mentor believe the information will help other researchers interpret the Mo isotope compositions of natural samples that tell us about oxygen levels in the deep past. Their research will also help Bryan decide what he will be researching in graduate school.

After completing his graduate degree, Bryan is considering pursuing a Ph.D. or doing something that he has dreamed about since third grade: becoming a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force. “There’s something I can’t resist about the chance to fly at twice the speed of sound in a state-of-the-art, ultra-maneuverable aircraft,” he said.

Clearly, Bryan’s goals and passions are limitless. Dr. Wasylenki, his mentor, knows this to be true. A great deal of the science, math, and computer science Bryan knows is self-taught. “For fun, when others his age are out drinking, Bryan teaches himself math, chemistry or physics,” she said. “His profound curiosity about all things scientific and his ability to learn very quickly are just amazing.”

Moreover, Bryan worked hard to get where he is today and has reaped the rewards. In high school, Bryan admitted to being a procrastinator with less than average grades. By his junior year, he managed to take control and reprioritize his goals. While he could not salvage his GPA, he would make up for it with his work at the university. This past April, Bryan was one of three ASU juniors to be awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s premier award for undergraduates studying science, math and engineering.

Previously, he received a NASA Space Grant and has given a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences conference in Boston and attended the Pale Blue Dot III conference in Chicago. Last year, Bryan obtained a German Academic Exchange Research Internship and was selected as one of ten American Chemical Society Research Internships in Science and Engineering scholars. The internship paid more than two hundred American students to aide researchers at a German university for three months.

“I am extremely thankful for the opportunities I’ve had at ASU,” he said.

And while Bryan simply claims the title of “science geek,” this once high school procrastinator has proven to be a remarkable inspiration to those who simply have a passion for learning and advancing society.