NAE GRFP Fellows, Katharine Situ, Veronica Martinez Pesante, Robbie Leske
Our world would be a very different place without materials scientists. Veronica Martinez Pesante, Katharine Situ and Robbie Leske, PhD students at the USC Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, are pursuing the discovery of new materials that could improve the resilience of spacecraft, advance the treatment of complex diseases, and supercharge the efficiency of our everyday electronics and AI systems.
The relevance of their research is recognized by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), which provides talented emerging researchers with three years of financial support for graduate study. The GRFP fellowship is one of the nation’s most competitive honors for graduate students in STEM fields, awarded for commitment to positive societal impact as much as scientific excellence.
We caught up with the three scholars to learn more about their commitment to advancing their chosen field.
Fast-track discovery of new materials for space
Veronica Martinez Pesante studies ultra-high-temperature ceramics, materials designed to withstand the extreme conditions found in aerospace systems and spacecraft. Her research focuses on accelerating how those materials are discovered and tested.
Working at Hodge Materials Research Group, Martinez Pesante uses combinatorial methods that allow researchers to generate and evaluate hundreds of material compositions simultaneously rather than testing one composition at a time. This approach reduces the time and cost to identify materials with specific thermal and mechanical properties for high-temperature applications. “The goal is to accelerate material discovery, which can help identify more sustainable, resistant and high-performance materials for future applications,” Martinez Pesante explained.
Her path towards research started with an early fascination for space science. “I have always had a passion for science, especially space-related work, which led me to pursue a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.” she said. As an undergraduate, she assumed that she would work in industry after graduation, but she soon discovered that she wanted to pursue materials science at a more fundamental level. “After a year-long internship at a manufacturing company, I realized that I wanted to return to the lab – to work in a research setting where I could be intellectually challenged and make a meaningful impact.”
She chose to pursue a PhD in materials science at USC because it allowed her to reconnect her engineering training with aerospace research. “This path brought me back to my original passion because it aligns with applications that move me closer to my goal of contributing to space-related work,” she reflected.
After graduation, Martinez Pesante plans to continue working in a research-focused environment, either at a national laboratory or in industrial research and development. “My long-term goal is to work at NASA or another institution where I can contribute to space-related research using the expertise gained at USC,” she said. Supported by the GRFP, she’s excited to have the chance to dive deeper into her investigations and accelerate the discovery of new materials.
Engineering better models for membrane proteins
Working at Zeno Research Group, Katharine Situ develops membrane systems that allow researchers to study membrane proteins in environments that more closely mimic living cells. Her work focuses on a longstanding problem in biomedical research: many membrane proteins lose their natural behavior when removed from cellular membranes, making them difficult to study accurately.
To address this, Situ engineers platforms that preserve key membrane properties involved in protein binding, molecular transport and cell signaling. More realistic membrane models could improve how researchers study diseases linked to membrane-protein interactions and evaluate potential therapeutics.
Her research includes studying how alpha-synuclein interacts with cellular membranes. “It can provide new insights into the mechanisms of membrane-associated diseases, including how proteins such as alpha-synuclein interact with membranes in Parkinson’s disease,” Situ explained.
Situ’s interest in research took shape during an internship focused on pathology imaging. The experience exposed her to the full process of scientific research, including experimental design, data analysis and scientific communication. Outside the lab, conversations with medical professionals prompted her to explain and defend the scientific reasoning behind her work.
“Those conversations pushed me to think more critically and conceptually about research and made me realize how much I enjoyed not just running experiments but understanding and discussing the broader scientific questions behind them,” she said. The experience convinced her to pursue a PhD focused on biomedical research.
The GRFP fellowship will allow Situ to spend sustained time implementing and validating the membrane-engineering workflows outlined in her research plan. Her long-term goal is to lead a research group focused on materials science and cellular engineering, with an emphasis on drug delivery and therapeutic design. “I hope to study material-tissue interactions and controlled molecular release to help develop next-generation drug delivery systems, responsible biomaterials, and biologically relevant therapeutic platforms,” she said.
The unexplored physics of optoelectronics
Robbie Leske studies materials that could improve how electronic and light-based devices process information. His research focuses on chalcogenide perovskites, a class of materials with potential applications in technologies such as solar cells, photodetectors and optical communication systems.
At the Laboratory for Complex Materials and Devices, Leske works on discovering, developing and characterizing new materials with unusual optoelectronic properties — properties that determine how materials interact with light and electricity. Many of these materials remain poorly understood, leaving open the possibility that they contain physical behaviors that could improve the efficiency of electronic and photonic devices.
“The unexplored physics of these materials has the theoretical possibility of increasing efficiency in these devices,” Leske explained. Because modern communication systems and large-scale computing technologies rely on moving enormous amounts of data quickly and efficiently, even small improvements in material performance could have significant downstream effects. His selection as a GRFP fellow recognizes the potential applications of his work in advancing communication technologies and data-intensive systems.
Leske’s interest in materials research grew from an early fascination with theoretical physics. “I started in physics because I was enchanted by the mystery of modern physics like quantum mechanics,” he said. That interest led him to study orbitals – the quantum structures that describe how electrons behave inside atoms and materials – and eventually toward a research area that combined physics, chemistry, mathematics and materials science.
After graduation, Leske plans to pursue teaching and research, with a focus on interdisciplinarity and making science more accessible to students from different backgrounds and perspectives. He believes scientific training often becomes too narrowly specialized, making it harder for students and researchers to connect ideas across fields. “I hope to use my background in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and now materials science to bridge the gap between these fields in the classroom and provide various perspectives,” he explained.
Learn more about the research taking place at the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science here.
Published on June 4th, 2026
Last updated on June 4th, 2026