EFRC Brings 21 Investigators from US and Netherlands to LSU
November 6, 2009
LSU's Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), the Center for Atomic-level Catalyst Design hosted its kick-off meeting October 20-21, 2009 at the the Lod Cook Alumni Center. Nearly 50 scientists, faculty, and graduate students participated in the meeting, which featured project presentations from leading researchers in the fields of computational catalysis, synthesis, and atomic-level characterization.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science created EFRCs to pursue advanced scientific research on energy. LSU's Center for Atomic-level Catalyst Design specifically focuses on new ways to use advanced computational tools to accurately model catalytic reactions. This knowledge can then be used to design new materials to synthesize and characterize in the lab-all with the goal of developing catalysts for the production of clean energy. The Center is housed in LSU's Cain Department of Chemical Engineering. The research will rely heavily on LSU's synchrotron radiation facility, the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices, or CAMD, for synthesis and characterization of novel nanostructured catalysts. Other resources, such as LSU's Materials Characterization Center, with its electron microscopes, will also be utilized.
LSU's Center for Atomic-level Catalyst Design is headed by Dr. Jerry Spivey, McLaurin Shivers Professor of Chemical Engineering. "This project brings together 21 investigators from nine institutions from the U.S. and the Netherlands," said Spivey. "Our goal is to advance the emerging field of computational catalysis together with experimental and spectroscopic methods... to develop new materials that can help provide clean energy. This kick-off meeting was intended to focus on specific individual projects that our team will undertake. We want to encourage collaboration by making each team member aware of the expertise of their colleagues."
"Since this is a collaborative effort, getting to know the other researchers is essential," said Ulrike Diebold, of the Dept of Physics at Tulane University. "It was exciting to meet many of the other participants for the first time and to learn about their ideas and technical capabilities."
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Article by Brenda Tate, LSU College of Engineering, 225-578-4986, btate8@lsu.edu
