Emily Asenath-Smith, a Greenfield Community College alumnae who recently graduated summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in ceramic engineering at Alfred University in New York, a school well known for its ceramics arts and technology programs.

A chemistry major and mathematics minor at Mt. Holyoke, Asenath-Smith was a liberal arts/math-science major at GCC until 2002. Asenath-Smith has been interested in the artistic and functional aspects of ceramics and pottery since she was seven years old. She has had her own pottery studio for several years and attended Mount Holyoke to learn more about the chemical aspects of glazes and clays.In studying chemistry, Asenath-Smith has gained a deeper appreciation and understanding of the scientific properties of ceramics. "Ceramics are great because of their ability to withstand high temperatures, and their resistance to corrosion, which makes them durable to a wide variety of applications where polymers and metals fail," she said.Asenath-Smith is particularly interested in how ceramic materials can generate electricity from heat, through what is known as the thermoelectric effect. "These thermoelectric materials can be used for a wide variety of alternative energy applications and have the potential to relieve our current energy crisis." At Alfred, she plans to work on the development of these thermoelectric materials. Asenath-Smith will be moving to Alfred, New York, over the summer with her husband and three young children. Currently, she is working in associate professor of chemistry Wei Chen's lab at MHC.