Thousands of Penn State students graduate each year and seek jobs in academia, national labs, or large companies, but there is another path. Start-up companies create millions of jobs and bring innovative products or services to the world. I will discuss my experience founding a high-tech company that serves the electron microscopy market, discuss risks and rewards, and present “lessons learned” along the way.
Control of pore size, morphology, microstructure and surface functionalization form the basis for numerous applications of carbon materials. In particular, they have a profound impact on the electrochemical properties of carbon. I will discuss past and ongoing efforts in the use of various types of carbon materials for improving the electrode/electrolyte interaction and their potential impact on design of high energy density electrochemical capacitors.
Advanced nuclear reactor designs push the operational requirements for materials, including tolerance to radiation damage whereby atomic displacements produce defects in the microstructure. Accelerated irradiation testing of materials is possible in the laboratory setting through ion irradiation, and its ability to reproduce real conditions is quantified by transmission electron microscope microstructural characterization and comparison to in-reactor irradiation.
Over the past seven years, part of my research has focused on the use of nanoscale and microscale fillers as a strategy to transform the performance of polymers by providing new mechanisms to engineer dielectric, magnetic and coupled functionality, with important implications in actuation, energy harvesting and energy storage. The goal of the talk, which seeks to assess my interdisciplinary experiences with colleagues and students at Penn State and other institutions, is to provide an example of critical self-refection that might prove useful to colleagues interested in making sense of their own collaborative research and teaching practice.
Rare earth elements are used in the manufacture of lighter and stronger materials for energy applications such as gas turbines and wind and power systems, defense applications, electronics, and the medical industry. 2017 data indicates that the US is 100% import dependent for 21 of the 50 non-fuel mineral commodities. This dependence poses a national security threat and as such the US DOE, DOD, and DOI are actively pursuing research and development efforts in this area to expand domestic production. Penn State along with other industrial partners is involved in research efforts to develop physical separation and chemical methods to concentrate rare earths and other critical elements from coal and other waste products. This talk will outline the multidisciplinary nature and challenges in this task that require collaborations across several disciplines.
Project Drawdown has used peer-reviewed research to assess the costs and impact of over 80 solutions to reverse global warming. The portfolio of solutions is broad and sometimes surprising, including not just energy, buildings and transportation but also chemicals and materials, food systems and land use, and gender equity. Adoption of drawdown solutions will require highly interdisciplinary teams and multiple levels of agency to identify and implement at the local scale. In this talk I will highlight four farmer-powered solutions that can store many gigatons of carbon. These agricultural land management solutions contribute to better food security and can increase farm profitability while empowering farmers to become agents of positive change.