HomeResearchPREM Seed: Collaborative Research and Education in Energy Materials (CREEM)

PREM Seed: Collaborative Research and Education in Energy Materials (CREEM)

Collaborative Research and Education in Energy Materials (CREEM), is a NSF funded Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) Seed Grant (DMR-2122067) funding collaboration between Cornell and North Carolina A&T researchers. This PREM, led by Dr. Dhananjay Kumar, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at NC A&T, will develop low-dimensional titanium oxynitride-based materials capable of supporting energy conversion reactions. 

Using materials of incredibly small dimensions (i.e., nanometer width, height, or length), researchers will develop ways to split water into oxygen and hydrogen for use in fuel cells and to use solar light in the full spectrum range to convert the sun’s energy into usable electrical energy. 

 The CREEM team will also focus on broadening the participation of underrepresented African American students in graduate education leading to terminal degrees by engaging K-16 students in innovative materials research, education, and outreach programs. 

News

April 2024

Congratulations to Brooke Smith of North Carolina A&T!

Brooke was the first undergraduate student recruited to the PREM Seed project, and one of the first two NC A&T students to come to Cornell in the REU Program. Brooke will be graduating soon, and in the fall of 2024 she will start a PhD program at the University of California at Berkeley.

June 2023

February 2023

November 2022

Congratulations to Kaushik Sarkar, who, this October, 2022, defended his PhD thesis in at NC A&T. His achievement was followed up by the publication “Large refrigerant capacity in superparamagnetic iron nanoparticles in a thin film matrix,” which he co-authored with Surabhi Shaji, Suchet Sarin, Jeffrey E. Shield, Christian Binek, and PREM PI Dhananjay Kumar. The publication is currently online (as of November 16, 2022) in The Journal of Applied Physics (2022) at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0120280. The publication was also selected as a Scilight, which is a feature article chosen by the Editor of the Journal.

August 2022

We are excited to announce that a DOE EFRC grant has been awarded to NC A&T, the only award to a HBCU this year. PREM PI Dhananjay Kumar (NCAT) and PREM partner PI Jin Suntivich (Cornell) are investigators on the new DOE award which will establish clean energy initiatives.

Summer 2022

From left to right, Abebe Kebede, Brooke Smith and Steve Kriske in front of the thin film sputter deposition tool in Clark Hall CCMR Shared Facility(Photo: Dave Burbank)

This summer, two NC A&T undergraduate students, Brooke Smith and Vanessa Jones, travelled to Cornell to conduct research for ten weeks as part of the CCMR REU program. Brooke Smith conducted experiments with titanium oxynitride thin films with Prof. Jin Suntivich’s (MAE) group and Vanessa Jones conducted experiments with TEM simulations and the nature of ADF and ABF reconstruction models as part of Prof. David A. Muller’s (AEP) group.

The CCMR also welcomed Abebe Kedebe, Associate Professor of Physics from NC A&T as a visiting scientist at Cornell this summer, where he conducted research with the NC A&T students, collaborated with Cornell faculty, and explored the gorges in the Finger Lakes during his month-long stay in Ithaca.

From left to right: Abebe Kedebe and Vanessa Jones at the PPMS System in the CCMR Shared Instrument Facility. (Photo: Dave Burbank)

Spring 2022

PREM work was presented joint publication work (cited below) at the March APS and Spring MRS meetings:

J. Som, J. Choi, H. Zhang, N. Reddy Mucha, S. Fialkova, K. Mensah-Darkwa, J. Suntivich, R. K. Gupta, and D. Kumar, “Effect of substrate-induced lattice strain on the electrochemical properties of pulsed laser deposited nickel oxide thin film,” Materials Science and Engineering: B 280, 115711 (2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2022.115711

 

Winter 2021
PREM virtual meeting

NC A&T participants working with CCMR facility staff

(L to R) N.C. A&T faculty (Dr. Dhananjay Kumar) and students (Mr. Jacob Som and Ms. Manosi Roy) performing XPS analysis with Dr. Darrah Dare, CCMR Facility staff member. (October 2021)

 

The faculty participating in CREEM are: 

Bishnu Bastakoti (NC A&T, Asst. Prof., Chemistry) 

Caroline Booth (NC A&T, Assoc. Counseling Professor) 

Derome Dunn (NC A&T, Assoc. Prof., Mechanical Eng.) 

Debdeep Jena (Cornell, Prof. Elec. & Computer Eng. ) 

Abebe Kebede (NC A&T, Assoc. Prof., Physics) 

John Kizito (NC A&T, Assoc. Prof., Mechanical Eng.) 

Dhananjay Kumar (NC A&T, Prof., Mechanical Eng.) 

Xiaochuan Lu, (NC A&T, Assoc. Prof., Applied Eng. Tech.) 

David Muller (Cornell, Prof. Applied & Eng. Phys.) 

Kristen Rhinehardt (NC A&T, Asst. Prof., Computational Data Sci. & Eng.) 

David Schall (NC A&T, Asst. Prof., Mechanical Eng. 

Jin Suntivich (Cornell, Assoc. Prof., Materials Sci. & Eng.)  

Jenora Waterman (NC A&T, Assoc. Prof., Biology) 

Frank Wise (Cornell, Prof. Applied & Eng. Phys.) 

Huili Grace Xing (Cornell, Prof. Elec. & Computer Eng. ) 

News links: 

NSF announcement of 10 PREM Seed grants 

NC A&T PREM Seed article 

Cornell Chronicle PREM Seed article 

 

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