Dillon Crook has been named one of the Winter 2019 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be happier for him. Dillon grew up in St. Helens Oregon just 30 miles north of Portland in an old lumber and paper mill town. He attended St. Helens High School for all four years and went on to Portland Community College to discover his passion in life and get his Associate of Arts.
Dillon’s father earned his Master’s in Education here at Oregon State which was one of the driving factors for him to attend school here. In addition, Dillon is a sixth generation Willamette valley resident, furthering his connection to the University. Coming to OSU allowed Dillon to grow his passion for chemistry and education.
For the last three years Dillon has been doing research under Dr. Subramanian, he works on exotic crystal structure analysis of solid oxides; specifically methods using solid state synthesis. As well as characterization and instrumental techniques related to the research. His path to research started with the careers in chemistry course (CH 220) and a job shadow with one of Dr. Subramanian’s graduate students, Sarah Synnestvedt. After the job shadow Dillon become fascinated with Dr. Subramanian’s research and started working under Sarah until she graduated in 2017 with her masters, when he then transitioned to working with Joseph Tang.
Post-graduation Dillon hopes to teach abroad in Macaw, China for a term, through this experience Dillon hopes to be able to further is career in teaching chemistry or some other physical science at the middle or high school level. He has already made strides in reaching his goal by being an undergraduate teaching assistant for the general chemistry for non-science major’s courses for the past year.
Outside of school Dillon likes eating Tacos and enjoying nature. He and his family have traveled across the United States and have visited places such as Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and many other national parks. Students like Dillon are a huge part of what makes our Department so great. We wish him well in the future, and cannot wait to see what his next big adventure is.
