Second-year Ph.D. student Bengü Süeda Şengül of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has won first place in the JUAMI Charz Research Proposal Competition, a new initiative supporting collaborative materials science research between early-career scientists in the U.S. and Africa.
Şengül partnered with Raymond Sono Mahega, a master’s student from the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology in Tanzania, Africa, to propose a project that merges advanced characterization techniques with pressing environmental needs, and specifically water quality.
The Big Picture
JUAMI Charz, a platform founded and led by fellow Illinois materials student Alexia Popescu, seeks to connect researchers with characterization equipment they need through a growing network. This competition aimed to determine which characterization project proposals would receive support from JUAMI for their internationally collaborative projects. There were 30 applicants from the U.S. and 7 African countries, which each team competing in pairs to find real-world solutions to scientific problems.
Project Details
Şengül and Mahega’s winning proposal centers on:
- Supporting water treatment in Tanzania through the use of biochar synthesized from locally abundant moringa trees, aimed at treating wastewater for irrigation and agriculture.
- Tackling a critical gap: while Mahega’s team in Tanzania can synthesize biochar, they lack access to the equipment and expertise required to characterize its surface properties — a crucial step for verifying its effectiveness in water purification.
- As a member of a research team led by Professor and Racheff Faculty Scholar Cecilia Leal, Şengül applied advanced characterization techniques, including cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) at the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) at Illinois and confocal microscopy, in order to:
- Characterize the synthesized biochar’s microstructure and surface properties.
- Evaluate plant health and uptake in crops irrigated with biochar-treated wastewater.
- Bridging global research resources by combining African environmental innovation with U.S.-based materials analysis tools — an effort made possible by JUAMI’s matchmaking between proposal ideas and characterization capabilities.
The research not only broadens Şengül’s experience with new sample type characterization but also supports her long-term focus on pursuing a Ph.D.
Why It Matters
The project reflects Şengül’s interest in using materials science for global impact, particularly through international collaboration.
She also noted the unique opportunity to engage directly with African research infrastructure, learning more about both the challenges and innovations taking place in different contexts.
"It was a great chance for me to work with different sample types. I'm also very excited to apply microscopy and cryo-EM skills — and to support an African researcher who needs help on the advanced characterization side. The experience with plant samples will be particularly valuable, as I'm planning to incorporate similar biological materials in my upcoming research projects." - Bengü Süeda Şengül
What’s Next
Şengül plans to continue on an academic track, with goals of becoming a professor in biomaterials. With two to three years remaining in her Ph.D. pursuit, this project has already expanded her technical toolkit and global research perspective.
“This collaboration helped me grow both as a researcher and as a global citizen,” she said.
Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Cecilia Leal is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of materials science and engineering and is affiliated with the Department of Bioengineering and the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. She holds the RacheffFaculty Scholar appointment.