Simon Carn (GMES/EPSSI), is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $71,762 research and development grant from the University of Maryland.
The project is titled “Advancing NASA OMI SO2 Product: Enabling New Science Analyses, Applications, and Long-Term, Multi-Satellite Monitoring.”
This is the first year of a three-year project potentially totaling $219,881.
Carbon dioxide measured by a NASA satellite pinpoints sources of the gas from human and volcanic activities, which may help monitor greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
Late last month, a stratovolcano in Bali named Mount Agung began to smoke. Little earthquakes trembled beneath the mountain. Officials have since evacuated thousands of people to prevent what happened when Agung erupted in 1963, killing more than 1,000 people.
Before volcanoes erupt, there are often warning signs. Tiny earthquakes rarely felt by humans but sensed by seismographs emanate from the volcano. Plumes of water vapor rise from the crater. When the volcano begins to emit gases like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, eruption may be imminent.
But getting close to the top of a volcano is dangerous work. Using remote sensing to detect rising carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions without endangering people or equipment would greatly increase human understanding of volcanoes. Remote sensing emissions could prevent humanitarian disasters—and false alarms. Read the full story on the Michigan Tech news website.
by Kelley Christensen
Dongyan Zhang (Physics) has received funding from StabiLux Biosciences, Inc. in the amount of $198,944. This is for a two-year project entitled “High Brightness Fluorophores II”.
Dr. Zhang is the co-PI of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project funded by National Science Foundation.
Three startup companies with Michigan Tech roots have been named semi-finalists in this year’s Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition.
Goldstrike Data, a big data analytics firm founded and headed by Michigan Tech alumna Ashley Kern ’15, was selected as one of 36 semi-finalists, as were StabiLux Biosciences (Novolux Biosciences) and Orbion Space Technology. StabiLux Biosciences( Novolux Biosciences) was founded by Yoke Khin Yap, a professor of physics at Tech, and Orbion Space Technology was founded by L. Brad King, the Ron and Elaine Starr Professor in Space Systems in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.
The semi-finalists are innovative startups from a variety of high-growth sectors including advanced materials, manufacturing, alternative energy, business services, consumer products, information technology, life sciences/healthcare, media, mobility and more. On Nov. 16, 10 finalists will be selected and the winner will be chosen from among the finalists that night at the Detroit Masonic Temple. Since the competition’s inception, participating companies have generated more than 1,000 jobs in Michigan and raised more than $550 million in capital.
“We are extremely impressed with the diverse and creative entries that came to us from across the state and we’re excited to unveil an outstanding new crop of competitors,” said Martin Dober, vice president of Invest Detroit and managing director of Invest Detroit Ventures. “This competition has the potential to be life changing for these businesses. It is truly rewarding to help put promising young startups on a trajectory toward success.”
Each year, the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition showcases the startup innovation throughout Michigan and provides startups with the exposure, funding and mentorship they need. The first place company will win $500,000. The total value of all prizes is almost $1 million.
Let’s celebrate the 10th year anniversary of this great program and all the minds that have contributed to it for the last decade!
Learn more here
Including that the Mineral was named after our own Prof. John A. Jaszczak for all his contributions to understanding natural graphite!
follow this link and see one of the newest internationally recognized minerals.
PhD candidate Kevin Waters (Physics) is one of 52 new doctoral students nationwide selected for the US Department of Energy (DOE) 2017 Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program.
The program provides support for graduate students to spend 3 to 12 consecutive months at a DOE national laboratory conducting graduate thesis research in a priority research area in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist.
Waters will do his DOE research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. His PhD research focuses on predictive materials science and chemistry. See here.
Meanwhile Michigan Tech celebrates 5th straight year of enrollment increases!
Here some of our own researchers working in the Pierre Auger Collaboration help detect cosmic rays.
Please take some time to read it, it is very interesting and has some great photos and explains how to detect cosmic rays.
read it here
Miguel Levy (Physics/MSE/CQP) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $82,445 research and development contract from the Air Force: Office of Scientific Research.
The project is titled “Materials Processing for Heterogeneous Integration of Optical Isolators: Phase 2.”
This is a two-year project.
Raymond Shaw is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $43,000 grant from NASA.
Kamal Kant Chandrakar is Co-PI on the student fellowship project “Aerosol Indirect Effects on Optical Properties of Turbulent Clouds.”
This is a one-year project.