NIRT and NERs add up to success for Lehigh nanoresearchers in various subfields
In addition to the NIRT grant for the collaboration with MIT, Cornell and DuPont, Lehigh this year received one other NIRT grant and two one-year awards through NSF’s Nanoscale Exploratory Research (NER) program. Notably, Lehigh researchers were successful in 100% of their applications for NIRT and NER funding in 2006 -- a reflection of how Lehigh’s heritage in materials and microscopy acts as a foundation for growth and future success in nano-enabled interdisciplinary pursuits.
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- Israel Wachs, director of Lehigh’s Operando Spectroscopy Lab, received a four-year NIRT grant to study three methods of using nanocatalysis to reduce pollution: (1) converting NOx from power plants into nitrogen and water, (2) reducing NOx emissions from car engines, and (3) turning NOx and sulfur oxides from petroleum refineries into harmless substances. Wachs holds 33 patents, including one for a catalytic process that converts pollution from paper pulp mills into formaldehyde and other useful products. For that invention, he won the Clean Air Excellence Award from EPA in 2002.
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- James Gilchrist, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and Christopher Kiely, professor of materials science and engineering, received an NER grant to develop an adhesive that self-assembles into nanowires as it cures. Gilchrist is seeking to send electronic pulses through a solution of metallic nanoparticles and an adhesive or polymer, causing the nanoparticles to line up in a particle-by-particle chain. One of his goals is to improve fabrication techniques for nano- and microfluidic devices while lowering particle content of adhesives.
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- Filbert Bartoli, chair of the electrical and computer engineering department, and Svetlana Tatic-Lucic, assistant professor in that department, received an NER grant to create ordered arrays of nerve cells by culturing them in chains along nanochannels in a substrate. Arranged in this fashion, the cells can be probed to analyze the effects of various agents, enabling better therapies for neurodiseases and improved biosensing capabilities and applications.
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