Courtney Wilmoth is a senior from Los Angeles, California majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in English. She is the current Presidential Scholar for the College of Engineering and recently presented research at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2024 Annual Student Conference in San Diego, where her research presentation was named the third best in her category. Courtney’s project, a membrane filtration system, was purchased by the company who funded the research — a huge accomplishment! We asked some questions about her research and how her interdisciplinary focus has benefited her years at the U of A and beyond.
It’s not often that a chemical engineer student decides to minor in a humanities program – how did that happen, and how has your English minor supported your engineering work?
Originally, my plan was to go to law school, so I was already planning to be an English prelaw major when I first applied to the University of Arkansas. But when I came to campus for a tour the student who showed me around was in the food science department, so she showed me her lab and talked about all the fun things that she was designing and creating, and how she was educating rural Arkansas about different growing practices. My eyes just lit up. I told myself, “I can do anything for one semester,” but I actually fell in love with the science.
I am learning the background information that I need to be successful and knowledgeable about climate change and sustainability and safe operation practices, but in my English classes I am gaining the communication skills to articulate those concepts to the general public in a way that’s easily understandable. Although numbers seem black and white, nothing affects people in a black and white manner.
I’ve taken technical and professional writing classes, but in one of my literature survey classes we talked about the differences in political opinions between the North and the South, and how budding technology impacted the discourse of the time. Then, in another survey class on modern and post-modern literature, we had a long discussion on the atomic bomb and the Cold War. We read some of my favorite authors who are also physicists, and we talked about the applications of science on the real world. I would recommend that class to any engineer, actually. We also talked about climate change and how to appeal to people who don’t have the educational background to understand all the science behind it.
What’s a lesson you’ve learned that has stuck with you?
One of my favorite professors focuses on K-12 and STEM education. She suggested that I should read one of theoretical physicist Richard Feynman’s essays called, “The Value of Science,” which asked how do you explain to someone that moving forward is important and that where the science stops, the politicians and the everyday workers have to pick up the slack? Feynman said that that transfer of information is the hardest part about being a scientist.
Did that help you as you thought about what career paths to pursue?
I experienced the challenge of informing people in a very political professional environment at my internship last summer as the environmental specialist for clean air and vehicle consulting at Phillips 66. My job was to assure people in the oil and gas industry that transitioning to electric cars after the passage of new regulations in California was economically and environmentally viable. One of the main sources of information that I had to pull from was my internship with Toyota the previous summer. What Toyota found was hybrid vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell were cradle-to-grave the best option. But so many people don’t have the technical expertise to read those highly scientific rules and regulations. I unknowingly 
chose a highly politicized research field, but I’ve already accepted a job offer to lead the manufacturing and production quality team at Toyota Motors North America where I’ll be working on material quality of EV batteries.
What is a benefit you would share with other students who are considering seeking out interdisciplinary opportunities at the U of A?
My interdisciplinary approach allowed me to study abroad twice. I went to the faculty-led medieval England trip where I was able to learn about the document preservation processes at the British Museum, and I also went on the sustainability and the European food system trip. Those two trips had very different areas of focus, but I was able to connect them to my education goals, and both of them ultimately supported my ideas for research.
Because of my English minor and my communication skills, I’ve been asked to take on a lot of leadership positions within the College of Engineering. For example, I was the VP of standards of my sorority, Phi Sigma Rho, a job that includes mainly bylaw review and changes. As an engineering sorority, there might not be a lot of members with the communications skills I have. Ultimately, the national program asked me to review and edit our national bylaws as well.
I was also the conference chair for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. It was a 300-person conference on campus here at the University of Arkansas, and one of the main reasons they chose me is because I was able to communicate well in writing, so I was able to write clear instructions for registration and conference events.
You have done something not many students do while in school – you sold your research project to a company, right? Tell me about your project.
My research is in practical applications of membrane science. My graduate student mentor is a Ph.D. candidate now, so he’s been working on this research for upwards of five years, developing these membranes. Because my passion is creating a bridge from science to the people, my job has been to find real-world applications for the membranes we are developing, and I learned that when we use these membranes in a particular way, they could be used to address a health challenge that is affecting Arkansans.
Across the country, 43 million Americans’ only accessible water is well water, which is not regulated by the EPA and oftentimes not filtered adequately to be safe for drinking. Because Arkansas is an agricultural hub, many of the water contaminants found in our wells are nitrates and phosphates, which are not removed by typical filtration methods. Our membranes are a typical polyethersulfone (PES) similar to what you find in your Brita water filter, but my mentor added functionalization to the membrane to give it additional filtration capabilities.
Our research goal was to find methods of filtration that can be used even when there is no electricity or running water, to benefit people who get their water from wells as well as communities that have faced a natural disaster. Our product works in that application. I traveled to Batesville and presented our research to the company that had been funding the project, specifically focused on portable applications of the technology, and they decided that not only were they going to continue funding our research, but they were going to look into manufacturing the practical components.