Senior Kobi Felton Receives a 2018 Marshall Scholarship

Kobi Felton
Kobi Felton – 2018 Marshall Scholar

Senior Kobi Felton has been awarded a prestigious 2018 Marshall Scholarship. A participant in the Chemical Engineering Honors Concentration with a minor in Spanish, Kobi is a Park Scholar and a University Scholar. He has served as President of the NC State National Society of Black Engineers, and as an Engineering Ambassador and Chancellor’s Aide.  Additionally, he is a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, Omega Chi Epsilon Chemical Engineering Honor Society, the AIChE and the W.E.B. Dubois Honor Society.

According to their web site, “Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom. Up to forty Scholars are selected each year to study at graduate level at an UK institution in any field of study.

“As future leaders, with a lasting understanding of British society, Marshall Scholars strengthen the enduring relationship between the British and American peoples, their governments and their institutions. Marshall Scholars are talented, independent and wide-ranging, and their time as Scholars enhances their intellectual and personal growth. Their direct engagement with Britain through its best academic programmes contributes to their ultimate personal success…

“Founded by a 1953 Act of Parliament, and named in honour of US Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Scholarships commemorate the humane ideals of the Marshall Plan and they express the continuing gratitude of the British people to their American counterparts.”

When Kobi arrived at NC State, he chose his major and immediately sought out research opportunities. That interest led to his yearlong participation in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). The REU began with a summer research program at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and was followed by working remotely during his sophomore school year.

His sophomore and junior year summers were occupied with internships at Eastman Chemical Company and ExxonMobil, respectively, and in January 2017 he signed-on as an undergraduate researcher in Professor Milad Abolhasani’s research lab.

In the Abolhasani group, Kobi is working on the continuous processing of organohalide nanocrystals for photovoltaic applications. One fruit of his labors in the lab is being included as a co-author of a research paper, “Automated microfluidic platform for systematic studies of colloidal perovskite nanocrystals: towards continuous nano-manufacturing,” which describes a pioneering technology, the NanoRobo, that monitors properties in a microfluidic system.

Kobi will use the two-year scholarship to pursue a MPhil in chemical engineering at the University of Cambridge beginning in fall 2018 and then a MRes in nanomaterials at Imperial College London in the second year. He plans to then earn a doctoral degree and one day create a cloud chemistry laboratory that can democratize access to advanced chemistry equipment, optimize chemical reactions, and facilitate scientific innovation.

Kobi is NC State’s third Marshall Scholar. The first is CBE graduate Tomás Carbonell (B.S. ’03). One of Kobi’s mentors, Professor Ruben Carbonell, is Tomás’s father.

Congratulations Kobi, for your outstanding accomplishments!