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2021 Hulka and Wells Energy Fellowships Awarded

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MEI2 awarded two Harry K. Wells graduate fellowships and one Barbara Hulka graduate energy fellowship in March 2021. The fellowship comes with a 20K stipend for research and a 4K award for conference travel and materials. Mr. Harry K. Wells (B.S.  ’43, mechanical engineering) established an endowment to support engineering graduate student research in the field of sustainable energy generation and/or storage.The 2021-22 Wells recipients are Gaurav Iyer (CHBE) and Bryson Clifford (MSE).

Since 2007, Mrs. Barbara Hulka has donated $20K annually to award a faculty-sponsored graduate student pursing research in sustainable energy with specific emphasis in the areas of alternative energy research, solar energy conversion, biofuels, wind energy, wave energy, and ocean thermal or geothermal energy.The Hulka Fellowship recipient is Amy Chen (MSE).
 
Iyer proposes to develop carbon molecular sieve (CMS) hollow fiber membranes from novel polyamide precursors for sustainable H2 purification. The work will pave the way towards a new class of CMS membranes attractive for small molecules separations. Clifford aims to address the safety issue of Li-metal batteries while achieving high performance. The motivation is to address the core underlying limitations (i.e., safety & performance) of current energy transport/storage technologies and gain detailed understanding of interfacial phenomena, which is critical to improvements in performance, increase the reliability, and reduce the cost of state-of-the art Li-metal batteries.
 
Chen aims to address the formation mechanisms and catalytic stability of multimetallic nanoparticles by applying liquid phase transmission electron microscopy (LP-TEM) in addition to conventional electrochemical testing methods. The proposed experiments will provide fundamental insights that will inform rational nanoparticle catalyst design to improve both their activity/selectivity and resistance to degradation.

Published April 20, 2021