Impact. > 2020 top ten > Kristian Gubsch

Kristian Gubsch

Academics

  • Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, Honors College
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Edgewood, Washington

Involvement

Recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship (first-ever for WSU student), Hollings Scholarship, and Goldwater Scholarship; American Chemical Society delegate to COP 25 on climate change; Virginia E. Thomas scholarship; president of the Harold Frank Engineering Entrepreneurship Institute; conference chair and industry relations officer for American Institute of Chemical Engineers; undergraduate peer research mentor; researched process to convert sequestered carbon dioxide to formic acid in undergraduate research with WSU professor Hongfei Lin; programmed and built air quality units for research experience with WSU Laboratory for Atmospheric Research; Honors College facilitator for global leadership

Favorite WSU experience

My first summer at WSU was really transformative. I did a research experience for undergrads in the Laboratory for Atmospheric Research. I was working with Dr. Von Walden and programming Raspberry Pi for air quality sensors, coding in Python and doing things I’d never done before. We were trying to understand how the air quality changed when wildfire season hits. I was trying to automate these processes. I had never worked on a project like that before. Additionally, I’m still in contact with the people I met there. I just had a Zoom meeting with them a few weeks ago.

Going out and exploring all the Palouse in all its beautiful glory. I loved biking in the wheat fields. I loved being here, being outside, and taking time to appreciate how special Pullman is.

Future plans

After I graduate, I’ll study on the Marshall Scholarship at the University of Sheffield in energy and environmental engineering. That’s a one-year master’s program where I’ll take classes and do a research project. After that, I’m still deciding but leaning toward a master’s program at Cambridge. It has a focus on entrepreneurship, which I’m really passionate about here at WSU as president of the Harold Frank Institute. The long-term ambition is to develop technology that mitigates the effects of climate change.