Veronica Ibarra

Armour College of Engineering Co-Terminal student Veronica Ibarra (BME/CHE 5th year) was recently named the recipient of the 2016 Student Award for Outstanding Research from the Society for Biomaterials. The award is bestowed upon student researchers, at the undergraduate level, who have shown outstanding achievement in biomaterials research.

She was nominated for the award by Eric Brey, Duchossois Leadership Professor and professor of biomedical engineering. Ibarra worked on the research for which she was nominated in Brey’s lab, as part of Armour R&D and Illinois Tech’s National Science Foundation (NSF) funded summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Her manuscript, “Evaluation of the Tissue Response to Alginate Encapsulated Islets in an Omentum Pouch Model,” that was submitted as part of her award nomination will be considered for publication in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research or Applied Biomaterials.

As recipient of the award, Ibarra will receive a $500 travel expense reimbursement towards the 2016 World Biomaterials Congress in Montreal, Canada from May 17-22, 2016.

At Armour, Ibarra was exposed to research through Armour R&D. Her project “Histological and Immunohistochemical Characterization of the Inflammatory Response to Alginate Encapsulation Materials” earned her a runner-up award at the 2014 Spring Armour R&D Expo.

During the summer of 2015, Ibarra was invited to conduct research at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan. She has also been selected to receive numerous awards such as a BMES Undergraduate Design and Research Award, a travel award for the the 2014 TERMIS-AM Annual Conference, and a 2014 OLE Scholarship.