Amorette Chiossi had never been to Chicago before her GEM Fellowship with UL Research Institutes’ Materials Discovery Research Institute in summer 2025. She joined what she describes as “one of the most supportive and collectively encouraging group of people she’s ever worked with” in her role at MDRI.

Chiossi performed synthesis in parallel to developing a machine learning model. The data she produced is being used to build a model that she hopes can guide future streamlined experimentation, making it more efficient and easier to hone in on ideal synthesis conditions that can be used for many future projects.

“The work we’re doing has positive implications for clean energy, including absorption for pollutants or battery synthesis, and a lot of it has to do with addressing environmental concerns,” she said. “The idea is to use less materials and move forward on developing solutions that have been time consuming to experiment on.”

What drew Chiossi to the GEM Fellowship at ULRI was how parallel the research was to her work and her background. Her current doctorate work is focused on finding nontoxic or biologically sourced materials that can be recycled and used for energy sources and finding new methods to create new sources of energy that don’t pollute the Earth.

“When I was selected, I was so amazed that I found an institute focused on clean energy and materials discovery,” she said. “I’ve been able to pad my lab skills and work between the data research group, advancing my interdisciplinary skills as a scientist.”

The materials Chiossi worked with are a useful class of novel materials, not widely produced, so the majority of her work is still theoretical. “I’ve always been very protective of the environment and raw materials,” she said. “Working with MDRI has been amazing. Like the name states, I feel like I’m doing both discovery and research, and have people supporting the different aspects of where I want to explore.”

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