Baston receives Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate/ Faculty Research Fellowship

Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate student, Josh Baston is the recent recipient of a 2023- 2024 Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship. The Fellowship provides research training and support to undergraduate students. Students have the opportunity to work on their own research project in collaboration with a UW–Madison faculty member. Josh plans to focus on creating nanoporous metal oxides via oxidative dealloying of Mo-alloys as his personal project for this fellowship where Professor John Perepezko will serve as his project manager.

A junior in MS&E, Josh plans to pursue a Ph.D. in additive manufacturing or high temperature materials after his undergraduate studies. Over the past year, he has worked with MS&E Professor Perepezko on the mechanical testing and oxidation properties of Mo-Nb-Si-B and Mo-Ti-Si-B alloys and their coatings for high temperature applications in hypersonic aerial vehicles and green energy production. Last year, Josh worked with Professor Mike Arnold researching the field-effect transistor properties of graphene nanoribbons where he  tested over 10,000 graphene devices in the hopes of making the switch from Silicon to two-dimensional Carbon-based computing. This summer Josh will be traveling to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany on a German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) fellowship to continue his current research in Mo-Si-Cr alloys that he is currently working on here at UW-Madison.

Outside of academics, Josh is the co-president of the Materials Advantage and American Foundry Society Club, the CAD/Structures leader of Engineering Without Boarders-Guatemala team, and a member of the Wisconsin Track Club where he has raced in over 10 NCAA cross country and track meets in the past two years.