Congratulations to Morgan Skala, who defended her Ph.D. work titled “Ball Mill Grinding Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Chemical Transformations of Post-Consumer Polymer Waste” on April 21, 2026.
Morgan was a student in Professor Matthew R. Golder's research group at UW where she developed solid-state, force-driven reactions for functionalization, depolymerization, and upcycling of plastic waste into new materials. She has accepted a position as a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Christopher Cooper at Washington University in St. Louis, where she will focus on developing polymer materials for applications in coatings, robotics and environmental sustainability.
She would like to thank everyone in the Golder Lab and UW Chemistry for making her time in Seattle so meaningful.
Skala Defends Dissertation
Submitted by Diana Knight
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