Kristin Lai joined Particulate Solid Research, Inc. (PSRI) in Fall 2022 after receiving a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Throughout her undergraduate career, Kristin was involved in research as well as an active member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). As a member of the SWE, Kristin was the Special Event Chair on the Community Service committee and contributed to the organization of service events that helped encourage and empower women in engineering to give back to their local community. Kristin was also involved in research, specifically as a participant in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM), a synthetic biology competition, where she worked on the improvement of enzymatic efficiency of PETase, an enzyme that degrades polyethylene terephthalate, or PET plastic.

As a Development Engineer at PSRI, Kristin has had the opportunity to work on projects with a variety of clients, such as Owens Corning and Encina to help meet their fluidization needs. Additionally, through member research, Kristin is eager to contribute to new discoveries in the particle technology research community. Since starting, she has assumed a role overseeing the service work conducted at PSRI. Kristin has been investigating new methods of improving the efficiency of our service work through the acquisition of new instrumentation and the development of improved documentation.