Soroush Shabahang, a graduate student in the UCF College of Optics & Photonics (CREOL), made a landmark discovery that could change the way pharmaceuticals are produced.

The discovery was made by Shabahang and fellow graduate student Josh Kaufman, who were stretching and heating glass fiber on a homemade tapering machine. Shabahang thought the experiment was a failure when the material actually broke apart into multiple miniature spheres, when Shabahang’s mentor Ayman Abouraddy found out what happened he realized it was the discovery of a lifetime.

Ayman Abouraddy who spent the first part of his career at MIT, one of the most prestigious private research universities in the nation, took notice of this discovery and helped Shabahang further break down the findings.

Kaufman, Shabahang, and Abouraddy submitted the finding to the “Nature” article.

Knightnews.com will update you with any awards or further discoveries the graduate students make.