Aislinn Varela is a Chemical Engineering undergraduate student, pursuing her BSE at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at ASU.
Aislinn completed an REU program at the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) in the summer of 2022, in partnership with Rice University. Aislinn's research projects centered on the treatment of high salinity brines through direct contact membrane distillation. During the scope of this project, she investigated two methods of membrane scaling mitigation, including air microbubble aeration and the use of nanophotonic membrane coatings for solar-assisted membrane distillation. Her research findings were presented in poster format at the Smalley-Curl Institute Summer Research Colloquium at the Rice University campus.
Aislinn has continued her research as a Chemical Engineering Lab Technician for the Paradox Resolved project, conducting membrane distillation trials on brine samples obtained from the Paradox Valley Unit in Colorado, while also investigating novel brine managements options.
Founder of the ELL program for the Des Colores Women's Domestic Violence Shelter.
Member of Barrett, the Honors College