Barbara Kanegsberg

May 2020

Ethan DeBrosky – Innovation and Adaptability

“I wanted to be a police officer as a kid. I also grew up watching TV crime shows; but wasn’t until high school that I got exposed to science. I got to like it!” Ethan started out as a biology major, then found he “just gravitated toward chemistry – the […]
April 2020

Cleaning Work Surfaces

If battling COVID-19 involves new strategies, doing so in a manufacturing environment demands coordinated brilliance. Manufacturers are adding emergency protocols to protect employees, including the way they clean work surfaces. For many manufacturers involved in critical product cleaning, precision cleaning, and surface preparation, the concern is with removing soils that […]
April 2020

Alex Lu – Ultrasonic Cleaning and Imagination

Alex Lu, a chemistry major at Sam Houston State University, came from to the U.S. from China six years ago. He explains that “when I graduated from High School, I had two interests: chemistry and physics. I enjoyed chemistry more.” Alex is an innovator, an “imaginator” (if there is such […]
April 2020

Robin De Vries – Forensics, Raman Spectroscopy, and Adaptability

“I really like puzzles,” says Robin De Vries. Robin, a student at Sam Houston State University and part of the Cleaning Research Group, grew up with shows like Bones and NCIS. She latched onto Forensic Science as a major. She figured: “Great! I can work in a crime lab.” Then, […]
April 2020

Tanner Volek – Hansen Parameters and Surprising Findings

Would society be better served if more young people went to trade school instead of college? Not necessarily! Tanner Volek, and the world of manufacturing, is benefiting from a practical, applied college education. Tanner has been looking at solvency (does the cleaning agent dissolve the soil?) and powerful cleaning techniques […]
April 2020

Brianna Hickman – Marketing & Event Planning, Human Resources

“I had no idea the field of critical cleaning existed!” Brianna Hickman, Marketing and Event Planning Intern in the Department of Chemistry at Sam Houston State University is “heart and soul, 100% a business major, so everything was new to me. I’d sit in on meetings with people at CRG […]
April 2020

Nethmini Ariyarathna – Vacuum Cycle Cavitation Cleaning

How will the world meet the manufacturing, critical cleaning and surface quality requirements of the future? One way is through the efforts of young people who look at the practical aspects of science. One such person is Nethmini Ariyarathna of the Cleaning Research Group at Sam Houston State University. Nethmini […]
March 2020

Of Mice and Medical Devices – Cleaning, Disinfecting and Sterilization

Imagine that you manufacture medical devices. As a final step, the devices are placed in an autoclave; and sterilized using an approved, validated method. Next, you open the autoclave. What do you see? A mouse on top of the devices! YUK! The mouse may have been sterilized. The devices may […]
February 2020

What’s in a Name? – Cleaning Agents

Cleaning agents have truly amusing trade names! However, the name is not the molecule; and mixtures with similar trade names may behave very differently. I’ll give you some tips to understand the chemicals or mixtures behind the trade name. Choose the right cleaning agent, and you make critical product cleaning […]