Author: anae

Chemical catalysis expert to join Energy and Sustainable Materials Cluster

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Chemical catalysis expert to join Energy and Sustainable Materials Cluster

Dr. Amanda Cook will be  will be joining the UO Chemistry faculty this summer as a part of the UO’s Energy & Sustainable Materials Clusters of Exellence program. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan while working for Prof. Melanie Sanford, Dr. Cook began working for Prof. Christophe Coperet at ETH Zurich as a post-doctoral fellow. At Oregon, Dr. Cook’s research program will design and develop new catalysts for the transformation of organic molecules. Using a molecular approach to surface chemistry, solid catalysts will be synthesized, allowing for in-depth mechanistic studies to be carried out. The targeted catalytic reactions are of potential industrial utility, and include carbon dioxide reduction, alkyne functionalization, and biomass conversion.

Molecular materials scientist to join Energy and Sustainable Materials Cluster

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Molecular materials scientist to join Energy and Sustainable Materials Cluster

Dr. Carl Brozek will be joining the UO Chemistry faculty this summer as a part of the UO’s Energy & Sustainable Materials Clusters of Exellence program.  Dr. Brozek is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Gamelin Research Group and the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington. His research has spanned the synthesis of inorganic small molecules, MOF-based heterogeneous catalysts, and semiconductor electrochemistry. Most recently, Carl has developed theoretical and analytical tools for studying the redox properties of colloidal quantum dots. The Brozek Lab will synthesize reactive clusters and porous solids, and study how their unique redox properties challenge conventional understanding of molecules and materials.

DeRose & Haley lab projects shed new light on cancer drug

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DeRose & Haley lab projects shed new light on cancer drug

Emerging research from the lab of Prof. Vickie DeRose could support increased efficacy and safety of one of the most widely used drugs used to fight cancer.  In two recently published papers, separate projects using different approaches and led by two of DeRose’s doctoral students, have made new predictions for where the platinum-carrying drug cisplatin binds in cells.  More…

Parthasarathy leads Kavli Microbiome Ideas Challenge research team

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A UO research team, led by Prof. Raghuveer Parthasarathy is the recipient of a Kavli Challenge award to support high-risk, interdisciplinary research. The team, which includes Parthasarathy (UO MSI), Prof. Brendan Bohannan (UO IEE) and Karen Guillemin (UO IMB), will create tools that will enable new experimental approaches for studying animal-associated microbial communities as ecosystems of interacting colonized hosts and colonizing microbes. Read More

Computational chemist to join energy and materials cluster

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Christopher Hendon, a computational chemist, will bring his broad experience to bear on the ongoing challenge of developing more efficient energy sources. He’s the first hire in the UO’s Energy and Sustainable Materials Initiative, a Cluster of Excellence that builds on UO’s existing strengths in green chemistry, sustainable materials and renewable energy. Read More

Scott Waitukaitis Abstract

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Scott Waitukaitis
Leiden University, The Netherlands

Title:  Rabbits, Planets, Volcanoes, Dust Devils:  The Surprising Physics of Granular Tribocharging

Abstract:
If you shuffle your feet across a carpet and touch a doorknob, you might get shocked.  This is tribocharging–the transfer of electrical charge between different materials.  Although it was observed as early as 600 B.C. in ancient Greece, we know surprisingly little about it.  One of the most perplexing observations is that objects of the same material, when rubbed together, still exchange charge in a systematic way.  In nature, this is known to occur in granular systems, where it can cause large electric dipoles in dust devils and lightning during volcanic eruptions.  We study same-material tribocharging in large granular ensembles with an experimental system inspired by Millikan’s oil drop experiment.  By using a free-fall setup, we can witness interactions between individual microscopic grains that are otherwise hidden by gravity.  The zoology of behaviors includes attractive orbits and repulsive slingshot events, cluster growth via molecule formation, and cluster annihilation via high-speed impact. Using orbital paths, we estimate charges for pairs of particles by fitting; alternatively we also measure the ensemble charge distribution via acceleration by a uniform external electric field. We observe firsthand the important role of particle polarization, especially in molecule formation. These results have important implications in contexts ranging from the origin of same-material tribocharging to the agglomeration of protoplanetary dust.

Host: Eric Corwin

Simon’s Foundation funds Corwin’s research on “Cracking the Glass Problem”

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MSI researcher Eric Corwin is part of a 13 member international team working on a new initiative seeking to understand the “glassy state of matter”. Corwin was recently awarded a $745k, 4-year award for his research into the study of jammed systems as it relates to glass.

“The endeavor to understand the glassy state of matter forces us to consider deeply the seemingly simple question: what is a solid. Glass – the prototypic and ubiquitous amorphous solid – inhabits an incredibly ramified and complex energy landscape in which systems are often stranded far from equilibrium. Dealing with so many relevant energy minima has emerged as one of the central problems of statistical physics and requires the invention of a new set of tools and concepts. This collaboration, addressing such fundamental issues of disorder, non-linear response and far-from-equilibrium behavior, builds upon three powerful approaches: studies of jamming at zero temperature, the mean-field theory of glasses in infinite dimension, and the dynamics in a marginally stable landscape. The convergence of recent breakthroughs in these areas generates a unique opportunity to tackle two outstanding and intimately related challenges:

• Developing a unified theory of structure and excitations in glassy matter
• Developing a theory for the relaxation dynamics upon approaching the glass transition.”

More Info:
https://around.uoregon.edu/content/uo-scientist-team-hoping-crack-glass-mysteries

https://www.simonsfoundation.org/mathematics-and-physical-science/news-announcements/new-simons-collaboration-cracking-the-glass-problem/

https://scglass.uchicago.edu/