Author: College of Engineering

Sue Hill is the Digital Content Manager for the College of Engineering.

Xia Research Group in Chemical & Engineering News

RutheniumDeposition followed by etching yields ruthenium nanoframes

Michigan Technological University chemists Xiaohu Xia and Haihang Ye, together with researchers at the University of Texas, Dallas, and elsewhere used a ruthenium chloride solution to preferentially deposit ruthenium on the edges and corners of nanosized palladium octahedral seed crystals.

Read more at Chemical & Engineering News, by Mitch Jacoby.

A Noble Calling: Ruthenium Nanoframes Open the Doors to Better Catalysts

The world is run by catalysts. They clean up after cars, help make fertilizers, and could be the key to better hydrogen fuel. Now, a team of chemists, led by Xiaohu Xia from Michigan Technological University, has found a better way to make metal catalysts.

“We are fine-tuning the surface, size, shape and crystal structure,” he says. “Our goal is to increase their catalytic activity while reducing the usage of this precious material.”

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Allison Mills.

Melanie Talaga Receives the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship

Graduate student Melanie Talaga is a Spring 2016 recipient of the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship, as announced by the Graduate School.

Talaga’s advisor is Tarun Dam.

Talaga also received the Third Place Award for an Oral Presentation at the 2016 Graduate Research Colloquium. Hers was the Highest Attended Presentation.

Graduate students displaying research at Michigan Tech

“We use really big words and we’re use to using those words because we deal with it everyday,” said Melanie Talaga, MTU doctorate student. “Other general communities do not understand those words so we need to learn how to practice and break it down to everyone’s level. So then we can communicate our science and get people interested in our science.”

Read more at Upper Michigan’s Source, by Aleah Hordges.

GSC Winners 2016-2016
Sarah Hopson, Ni Fan, Tarun Dam, and Melanie Talaga

Andrew Galerneau is a Distinguished Teaching Award Finalist

Andrew Galerneau
Andrew Galerneau

The William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning seeks input for its annual Distinguished Teaching Awards, which recognize outstanding contribution to the instructional mission of the University.

Based on more than 50,000 student rating of instruction responses, 11 finalists have been identified for the 2016 awards. The selection committee is soliciting comments from students, staff, faculty and alumni to aid in its deliberation process.

Among the finalists in the Assistant Professor / Lecturer / Professor of Practice Category is Lecturer Andrew Galerneau.

Comments on the nominees are due by Friday, March 18, 2016, and can be completed online.

From Tech Today, by by Jackson Center For Teaching and Learning.

New Assistant Professor Kathryn Perrine

Kathryn A. Perrine
Kathryn A. Perrine

Kathryn Perrine joins the Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor. Before joining Michigan Tech, Perrine was at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at the California Institute of Technology. Perrine earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Delaware and her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

She belongs to the American Vacuum Society and the American Chemical Society. Her research interests include reactions on metal and functionalized surfaces to control the growth of molecular architectures; growth, properties and reactions on heterogeneous structures for energy analysis; and liquid/solid and gas/solid interfacial chemistry using surface analysis.

Read more at Tech Today.

Chemistry Research Group Publishes NIH Work

ACS SensorsGraduate students Jingtuo Zhang, Mu Yang, Wafa Mazi, Mingxi Fang, Fei Xie, Postdoctoral Associate Kapil Adhikari, Assistant Professor Loredana Valenzano, Associate Professor Ashutosh Tiwari and full Professor Haiying Liu (all from the chemistry department) published a paper entitled, “Unusual Fluorescent Responses of Morpholine-Functionalized Fluorescent Probes to pH via Manipulation of BODIPY’s HOMO and LUMO Energy Orbitals for Intracellular pH Detection,” in ACS Sensors. This project is funded by NIH.

From Tech Today.

DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.5b00065

Lynn Mazzoleni Wins Fullbright Scholar Award

Lynn Mazzoleni
Lynn Mazzoleni

Lynn Mazzoleni (Chem), was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to study one of Europe’s pollution hot spots. Currently on sabbatical in Bologna, Italy, Mazzoleni is collaborating with researchers in the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate at the Italian National Research Council. Their study focuses on the chemistry of atmospheric nitrogen species to improve the understanding of aqueous phase chemistry that contributes to the high concentrations of aerosol pollution.

From Tech Today.