Selma Mededovic Thagard, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Clarkson University, was recently awarded the John W. Graham Jr. Faculty Research Award during the university’s 123rd commencement ceremony.

The $1,500 research award is presented to "faculty members who have shown promise in engineering, business, liberal arts or scientific research," according to a press release from Clarkson.

Thagard's area of expertise is in electrical discharge plasma processes with a focus on theoretical and experimental investigations of fundamental plasma chemistry in single and multiphase plasma environments.

Her research group is pursuing multiple national and international interdisciplinary research projects, some of which include development and scale-up of chemical reactors for plasma-assisted water treatment, plasma sterilization and food decontamination, and plasma-assisted conversion of liquid fuels into hydrogen-rich gas, the release said.

The plasma water treatment technology developed at Clarkson will soon be commercialized, Thagard said.

"I want to thank all the people who have influenced my research -- the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Engineering at Clarkson University -- for all their support. They truly have helped me to grow as a researcher," she said. "I also would like to thank all my colleagues and collaborators here at Clarkson University who make it really easy to do good research."

She has supervised six graduate students, more than 30 undergraduate students and five honors students on research projects. Clarkson undergraduate students are “gifted, superb researchers,” she said.

Thagard has co-authored 30 articles in refereed journals, written three book chapters, and has three patents.

She is the recipient of the Tau Beta Pi Faculty Award, NSF BRIGE award, Kristin Craig Memorial Faculty Award, and the Omega Chi Epsilon “Professor of the Year” award.

She has presented her work at numerous national and international meetings and has delivered more than 15 lectures as an invited speaker, the release said.

Thagard received her bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Zagreb in Croatia and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Florida State University.

Before coming to Clarkson, she held post-doctoral appointments at Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan and at Colorado State University.