Recent Pennington graduate Sean Sprague ’23 experienced a full circle moment when he returned to campus on April 15 to speak to students in the School’s Applied Science Certificate Program. The alumnus was introduced by his former teacher, Matthew Mysliwiec, who recounted Sprague’s near-unquenchable thirst during his junior year for all things chemistry. 

Now in his junior year at The College of New Jersey, Sprague is conducting research on CO₂ reduction as part of a team in the Parada Lab. The work is based in PCET, also known as proton coupled electron transfer; Sprague’s talk, entitled “Small Molecules, Big Reactions: The World of PCET,” offered an overview of his experiments and explored the complimentary disciplines, such as physics and chemistry, required in this kind of research. 

Beyond the science, Sprague offered some practical advice for the students who were sitting in the exact same chairs he had quite recently inhabited himself. “There is definitely a learning curve with this work, but you have to remember to always advocate for yourself and trust you will get there.”