Seems like she’s cleaning up already, at least in the publication field. Dai is convinced the amount of papers she’s had published as a graduate student helped tip the scales in her favor to win the award. Already she is published as the first author on three articles, four as co-author and another four under consideration. She thinks the ACS may have ultimately voted for her because she was published twice in the most prominent journal in her field, the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology, once as lead author.