This summer, Julia Azzi (Honours Medical & Biological Physics co-op) completed an internship at Hochschule Hof in Hof, Germany through the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Rise program. The research group she worked in aims to develop more sustainable bioplastics by modifying scraps from wine and coffee products (i.e. skins, seeds, etc.) for use as additives in the bioplastics. Her work focused on extracting relevant compounds from these by-products and characterizing their antioxidant properties through assays.

Julia and her supervisor, Mirko, are pictured with the rotary evaporator. The rotary evaporator allows for efficient evaporation and recovery of desired solvents while leaving other solvents in their liquid state.