With this letter, I want to express my deepest gratitude for the Lisa Walker Travel grant which enabled me to travel and participate in my first ever conference, MRS Spring 2022. I am a third-year graduate student and with this great opportunity, I was able to present first time in front of a nationwide audience. The following discussions and suggestions I’ve received from the community were helpful in adding to these works some exciting new directions, which I will be working on soon. I was also able to interact with my peers and learn about all other exciting work being carried out in my field along with expanding my professional relations. With this funding, I was able to present two talks at the conference sharing my work on shape-controlled synthesis of polymeric particles using initiated chemical vapor deposition inside structured liquids and the development and application of a novel in-situ long focal range reflection-mode microscopy instrumentation setup which uncovered the mechanism behind the process. It was a great first experience for me and I would again like to acknowledge the funding provided through this grant for making it happen.

Apoorva Jain