Sipe utilizes her chemistry, German degrees

The following is an Alumni Spotlight from the Winter 2019 edition of Cornerstone, a newsletter created by ECU’s Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. Sarah Sipe is an Honors College alumna.

Sarah Sipe, ECU Class of 2015, B.S. Chemistry, B.A. German

Sarah Sipe

Sarah Sipe explored science and all that the world has to offer as an undergraduate student at ECU, majoring in Chemistry and German. “Sarah’s passion for German is driven by her love of the language and culture, but also by her desire to work internationally. Germany is at the cutting edge of many chemical and pharmaceutical advances, so German became a natural fit for Sarah,” said Dr. Susanne Jones, ECU associate professor of German.

In addition to excelling in these two challenging majors, Sarah took advantage of extracurricular opportunities, including studying abroad and engaging in undergraduate research with Dr. Anne Spuches, ECU associate professor of Chemistry. “Sarah was a valuable researcher and incredible mentor to students in my lab,” said Spuches.

Today, Sarah is pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Texas, one of the top-ranked programs in the nation. She is gaining expertise in structural biology applications using high tech chemical instrumentation, and her German degree helped her secure an internship as a graduate student at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Bremen, Germany, in 2018. “The ability to speak the language and share the culture with the people I met in Europe allowed me to forge deeper connections, both personally and professionally,” she said.

Good job, or should we say gut gemacht, Sarah!