ISU student Jane Clayton went from being a McDonald’s manager to an award-winning student researcher.

Clayton, graduate student and senior in materials science and engineering, will be graduating in May with a bachelor’s and master’s degree.

She also has the honor of being the first female MSE student to graduate with the $20,000 Catron Fellowship.

“I was excited because it validates the research that I do,” she said. “It’s extremely motivating because you get a lot of positive feedback, and you don’t want to let people down.”

Clayton said her project for the fellowship award is one of the most important things she has done.

“My project involves research into transparent conducting oxides,” she said. “It’s an integral component of photovoltaic devices, which deals with solar energy.”

Dave Cann, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, said he nominated Clayton for the fellowship because of her work in his research group.

“Jane has consistently displayed a high level of initiative in her work,” he said. “She has great insight and has demonstrated the ability to comprehend complex concepts both in her classes and in her research.”

Clayton, 33, said she decided to further her education after managing a Coralville McDonald’s for eight years.

“I decided to go back to school and go into engineering,” she said. “It was either a life of manual labor versus a college education, plus more money.”

After being influenced by a McDonald’s maintenance person, she said she wanted to learn how to repair the machines by herself.

“For the things we couldn’t fix, we called this guy who happened to be from Ames and majored in electrical engineering,” Clayton said. “He would show me what he was doing and we eventually became friends. [After that], I wanted to know more and learn how things worked.”

When Clayton arrived at Iowa State in the fall of 1996, she said she didn’t think she would be prepared to take the pre-engineering classes.

“I didn’t expect to do very well since it had been 10 to 12 years since I had had a math class,” she said.

Clayton said studying was the key to her success.

“Because of my study habits, I did fine in math, physics and chemistry,” she said.

In the fall of 1999, Clayton decided to enter into the combined bachelor’s and master’s degree program so that she could pursue her dream of teaching faster.

“During my junior year, I decided to do both,” she said. “In the program, you find a project that you’re interested in and start on your thesis. You take graduate courses as well as undergraduate courses.”

For the future, Clayton said she plans to obtain her doctorate degree. She said she would like to go on to teach at a university and do research on the side.

“I’m applying at four schools, most of which are out east,” she said. “I have no idea where I would want to teach, but I’m hoping for it to not be at a small school. I want a [school] similar in size to ISU.”

Cann said he has high hopes for Clayton because of her engineering knowledge.

“She is one of our department’s best students and has a promising future,” he said. “I believe she will make significant contributions to the field of materials science, including the development of new materials for solar energy applications..”