Micah is making strides at Florida State in the field of Chemical Engineering.

Micah Poplin

Honors in the Major, Chemical Engineering

Most of us have no idea what “aqueous pollutants” are or why in the world they would have gliding arc discharge. Most of us also aren’t spending late nights in the laboratory trying to diffuse complex compounds. We might not be, but Micah Poplin is.

Working on his Honors thesis, “Removal of Aqueous Pollutants with Gliding Arc Discharge,” for which he was awarded the Bess Ward Honors Thesis grant, Micah is making strides at Florida State in Chemical Engineering. “My research uses a high voltage electrical discharge to break apart complex molecules into their elemental components such as hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon.” After this process, the molecules are decomposed by unknown means, “so the focus of my study has been to decompose molecules that are either difficult or impossible to breakdown with the other more established techniques. Preliminary results have shown remarkable degradation of difficult compounds.”

Micah’s advancements to his field of Chemical Engineering have not gone unnoticed. After graduation in April, he will be well on his way. He has accepted a position in operations management with the General Mills Company.