Aurora Garcia-Comer
McNair Scholar 2022
Aurora Garcia-Comer is a biology and biochemistry (pre-med) major in the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences at West Texas A&M University. She is a senior anticipating graduation in Fall 2022. After attaining a bachelor’s degree, Aurora intends to enroll in an MD\PhD program. She will pursue her passion for neuroscience by becoming a pediatric neurologist and perform research on dysautonomia. Her goal is to discover the basic pathophysiology of this condition and doing so will better prevent misdiagnosis and improve treatment options for those who have to live with dysautonomia.
“It was so amazing being able to see everyone’s project come to life. There is so much variety in our cohort, and it was so fun learning about everyone’s research. However, the best part of being a McNair Scholar was getting to know each other beyond research and build friendships." - Aurora Garcia-Comer
"Optimizing Reaction Conditions for Synthesis of Bio-based Epoxy Resins"
Faculty Mentor: Maha L. Shrestha
Petrochemical raw materials are toxic to the environment and cost-consuming. Substituting such toxic substances with natural oils has been a topic of interest in the research field for many years that may lead to greater sustainability, economic vitality, and environmental conservation. This study analyzes the mechanical and thermochemical properties of various bio-based epoxy resins synthesized from epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and limonene, using tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) as a catalyst. TGA (Thermogravimetric analysis) proved that increasing the concentration of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) is directly proportional to thermal stability, however, mechanical properties like hardness were below average when compared to petroleum-based epoxy resins. Overall, epoxides were readily consumed in the reaction, providing highly crosslinked epoxy cast resins; hence, natural resins remain competitive to replace petroleum-based epoxy resins.