Energy efficiency and sustainability are major factors towards mitigating the depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the environmental impact of their consumption. Tight integration is a key enabler towards achieving these goals, both in existing chemical plants, but also in emerging technologies for power generation and for production of fuels and chemicals from … Read the rest »
Upcoming Seminars
“Dynamic and Evolutionary Constraints Imposed on Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Regulatory Networks” by Dr. Sarath C. Janga, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
An important notion that is emerging in post-genomic biology is that cellular components can be visualized as a network of interactions between different molecules like proteins, RNA, DNA and metabolites. This has led to the application of network theory to a wide range of biological problems including understanding regulation of gene expression, function … Read the rest »
“Block Copolymer Lithography in the Magnetic Storage Industry” by Dr. Ricardo Ruiz, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Block copolymer directed self assembly continues to make advances that place this technology as a potential candidate for sub-20nm lithography. The naturally periodic features found in block copolymer films display superior size uniformity at ultra-high densities, making them ideal lithographic masks to define the highly periodic data bits in the data sectors of … Read the rest »
“In situ Optical Sensing with Plasmonic Nanostructures: From Biotechnology to Energy Systems” by Dr. Rizia Bardhan, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Plasmonic nanostructures have long been known to manipulate light to yield unique optical properties. In this essence, my talk will discuss how optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures can be harnessed to understand fundamental physical processes directly relevant for biomedical and energy applications. First I will show how metal nanoshells, plasmonic nanostructures consisting of … Read the rest »
“Finding the Right Fit: Catalysis and Confinement at the Nanoscale” by Dr. Rajamani Gounder, University of California at Berkeley
Zeolites are crystalline inorganic oxides that contain microporous channels, cages and pockets that are typically sub-nanometer in dimension. They are indispensable catalysts in the petrochemical industry because their microporous voids can select molecules and reactions using size exclusion criteria. In many cases, the choice of zeolites to meet specific catalytic targets has relied … Read the rest »
“Third Generation Photovoltaics: Harnessing the Heat or ‘Hot’ Carriers” by Dr. Prashant Nagpal, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Sun provides more than 150,000 TW of incident radiation on earth which can easily provide us a carbon neutral source of renewable energy to meet our current needs (~15 TW). However, energetically broad distribution of the emitted electromagnetic radiation from the sun poses significant scientific challenges to harvest this energy economically. Conventionally, a … Read the rest »
“Catalysis with Nanocrystals: Under-Coordination and Single Particle Spectra” by Dr. Ming Lee Tang, University of California at Berkeley
Heterogeneous catalysts form the bedrock of industrial processes, yet little is understood in terms of structure-activity relationships. This is complicated by the fact that heterogeneous catalysts are not structurally identical, and that the catalysts change over the course of the reaction. Comprehensive characterization is necessary in order to determine the catalytic sites and … Read the rest »
“Understanding and Expanding the Efficiency Limit in Polymer Solar Cells” by Dr. Jeffrey Peet, Konarka Technologies
Reducing the cost of solar energy has been named one of the grand challenges for the 21st century by the National Academy of Engineering. Solution processed plastic solar cells are one path toward achieving this goal and have already demonstrated solar power conversion efficiencies as high at 10% in the lab and it … Read the rest »
“Advanced Nanostructures for Energy, Photonics and Electronics” by Dr. Erik C. Garnett, Stanford University
Crystalline silicon and thin-film technologies have ruled the photovoltaic landscape for several decades with continual efficiency improvements and cost reductions. One recent trend has been to use thinner semiconductors, which reduces both materials cost and losses associated with bulk recombination. Light management for these and more advanced multi-junction structures becomes critical in order … Read the rest »
Pirkey – “Systems Metabolic Engineering of Microorganisms for Chemicals, Fuels and Materials” by Dr. Sang Yup Lee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Seminar Abstract:
Our increasing concerns on limited fossil resources and environmental problems including climate change are urging us to develop sustainable systems for the production of chemicals, fuels and materials from renewable resources. Microorganisms have been and will be playing crucial roles in such bioprocesses. When they are isolated from nature, however, … Read the rest »