While ND Energy’s Student Energy Board (SEB) was brainstorming about what kind of event would be most meaningful for students at Notre Dame, the consensus was that most undergraduate students didn’t know exactly what kind of energy research was being done on campus and what it would be like to work as a researcher. This lead to the creation of What’s It Really Like?—Energy Research at ND.
During the week of April 4, ND Energy affiliated faculty met with small groups of students to have informal conversations about their work. Over fifty students took advantage of this opportunity. Faculty who participated in this unique experience are listed below along with their primary area(s) of energy research.
Thomas Degnan – Catalysis, Energy Efficiency and Consumption, Petroleum and Natural Gas
Vijay Gupta – Building and Energy Consumption, Electricity and Smart Grid Technology, PEV/PHEV Integration
Amy Hixon – Nuclear Energy
Prashant Kamat – Solar Photovoltaics, Solar to Fuels/Chemicals
Ian Lightcap – Energy Conversion, Graphene-Nanoparticle
Edward Maginn – Carbon Capture and Conversion, Nuclear Energy, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Storage of Energy
William Phillip – Water Purification, Energy Efficient Separations
Ginger Sigmon – Materials Science of Actinides
Ashley Thrall – Energy Efficiency and Consumption
Mark Wistey – Solar Photovoltaics
Physics junior Ray Yang enjoyed the tour of Dr. Kamat’s lab. “The Radiation Laboratory tour given by Dr. Kamat was amazing. We visited different parts of the lab and interacted with his fellow graduate students who showed us demonstrations of what they were doing, and Dr. Kamat actually guided us to arrive at the scientific conclusions of some of the researches by ourselves. All in all, it was very successful, and we should definitely do it again!”
Originally published by Jennifer Pavlick at energy.nd.edu on April 21, 2016.