Today was another day of pride, joy, and a good dose of sadness: After being a member of the group since December 2015, Vigneshwar had his last day in Buffalo! Vigneshwar defended his MSc thesis in January 2018, wrapped up his project over the past few months, and then kept volunteering to help out the group. Tomorrow, he will head back to India for the next chapter of his career, i.e., to start work in the chemical engineering industry.

During his graduate studies, Vigneshwar has been working on the modeling and discovery of biodegradable polymers and their decay reaction mechanisms. His project emerged in the context of a joint venture with UB CBE’s Professor Chong Cheng, who addresses this problem from an experimental perspective. Vigneshwar’s project was designed in the spirit of the Materials Genome Initiative with the goal of facilitating the accelerated discovery of next-generation materials. Vigneshwar has made notable contributions with his research and as part of the team. He is smart, enthusiastic, engaged, dedicated, hard-working, and an all-around decent human being. He is a team-player, a friendly and pleasant person, it is fun to work with him, and he is exceedingly open and gracious about sharing his expertise. In short, he has been a valuable and valued member of the group, and we will miss him.

Godspeed and all the best, Vigneshwar! Make us proud!