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Smalley-Curl Institute

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Credit: Jackie Limbaugh

SCI Summer Research Colloquium

The 4th Annual SCI Summer Research Colloquium took place on Friday, August 10th, in Duncan Hall at Rice University.

PLEASE SEE PRESENTATION AWARD WINNERS HERE Congratulations!

Complete details, including the full program and list of sponsors, can be found online here.

The Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) Summer Research Colloquium began in 1986 as the RQI Colloquium, and has taken place in August of each year since then.  The purpose of the SCI Summer Research Colloquium is to provide undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers working at Rice with an opportunity to present their most recent work.

Feds back Rice U. study of nanoscale electrocatalysis

Rice University’s Stephan Link and Christy Landes are both professors of chemistry and of electrical and computer engineering. Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Professors Christy Landes, Stephan Link will analyze mechanisms to improve chemical reactions

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences has awarded Rice University researchers $1.1 million to study single nanoparticles and their ability to act as electrocatalysts.
 
The Rice laboratories of Christy Landes and Stephan Link, both professors of chemistry and of electrical and computer engineering, received the three-year renewal of an earlier grant to develop and use single-particle spectroscopy techniques to understand how nanoparticles can be improved for use as electrocatalysts that facilitate chemical reactions.
 
 

 

Molecules’ movements through membrane present new puzzle

Discovery at Houston Methodist, Rice will impact design of drug delivery systems at the molecular level

A discovery by researchers at Houston Methodist Research Institute and Rice University could impact drug delivery systems, water filtration and energy production.
The team investigating how drug molecules in a solution travel through a nanofluidic membrane found that the molecules and membrane do not interact as expected.
(The membranes) were designed by Alessandro Grattoni, chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine at Houston Methodist; Mauro Ferrari, Methodist president and CEO; and colleagues. They were part of the research team, which also included Rice’s Alberto Pimpinelli, an adjunct lecturer in materials science and nanoengineering and executive director of the university’s Smalley-Curl Institute.
 
The findings are described in Nature Communications, "Unexpected behaviors in molecular transport through size-controlled nanochannels down to the ultra-nanoscale."

Applied Physics Student John Gomez Receives Rice Special Endowed Fellowship

Congratulations to Applied Physics graduate student John Gomez (Scuseria Research Group) for receiving the Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship for 2018-19. These awards are given to a very limited number of Rice graduate students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and promise. The selection process is extremely competitive and by nomination only. 

Mat baits, hooks and destroys pollutants in water

 

Rice-led NEWT Center develops energy-saving tech to remove contaminants from wastewater, drinking water

A polymer mat developed at Rice University has the ability to fish biologically harmful contaminants from water through a strategy known as “bait, hook and destroy.â€
 
Tests with wastewater showed the mat can efficiently remove targeted pollutants, in this case a pair of biologically harmful endocrine disruptors, using a fraction of the energy required by other technology. The technique can also be used to treat drinking water.
 
Image: The Rice University-led NEWT Center created a nanoparticle-infused polymer mat that both attracts and destroys pollutants in wastewater or drinking water. A mat, top left, is immersed in water with methylene blue as a contaminant. The contaminant is then absorbed at top right by the mat and, in the bottom images, destroyed by exposure to light. The mat is then ready for reuse. (Credit: Rice University/NEWT)
 
 

 

J Evans Atwell Postdoctoral Fellowship

We are pleased to announce an opening for a two-year J Evans Attwell Welch Postdoctoral Fellowship. The position is now posted online at RICEWorks (Requisition number P18056) and is open for applications until July 1st, 2018. A direct link to the application information for this position can be found online here. For more information on SCI Postdoctoral Fellows, please go here.

Quantum dots display promise for polymers

 

Rice Assistant Professor Eilaf Egap holds a vial of quantum dots her lab is using to catalyze the creation of functional polymers. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Rice University scientists simplify process to make polymers with light-triggered nanoparticles

Rice University scientists plan to employ the power of the sun to build functional synthetic polymers using photosensitive quantum dots — microscopic semiconducting particles — as a catalyst. The luminescent dots are only a few nanometers wide, but are highly tunable for their unique optical and electronic properties. They are beginning to show up in modern displays, but lend themselves to industrial chemistry as well. The Rice lab of materials scientist Eilaf Egap focused on the latter with its demonstration of a stable and economical method to make polymers through photo-controlled atom-transfer radical polymerization. The method could replace molecular catalysts or expensive transition metals currently used to make things like methacrylates (common in plastics), styrene and block copolymers.
 
 

 

2018 SCI Transdisciplinary Symposium

The Smalley-Curl Institute held its 3rd Annual Transdisciplinary Symposium on Friday, February 9th, 2018.

Symposium winning presenters received a $500 Travel Award, sponsored by the following departments and the Smalley-Curl Institute: Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering, and Physics and Astronomy.

NEST360º’s low-cost jaundice detector passes first test in Africa

Rice University students (from left) Mathieu Simeral, Pelham Keahey (Applied Physics) and Kristofer Schroder helped complete the first clinical study of BiliSpec, a low-cost, battery-powered reader designed to diagnose jaundice by immediately quantifying serum bilirubin levels from a small drop of whole blood. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Clinical study validates effectiveness of device invented by Rice U. students

 
The first clinical study of a low-cost, hand-held jaundice detector invented by Rice University students couldn’t have come at a better time for NEST360°, an international team of scientists, doctors and global health experts preparing for a Dec. 11 competition for $100 million from the MacArthur Foundation. The money would allow the team to carry out its visionary plan to halve the number of newborn deaths in African hospitals within 10 years.
 

 

Rice researchers demonstrate water desalination technology in D.C.

Rice postdoctoral research fellow Alessandro Alabastri, alumnus Andrew Treleaven ’13 and graduate student Pratiksha Dongare attended the inaugural University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate SNOWater, a solar water desalination project they pioneered at Rice’s Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Research Center. SNOWater converts high-salinity and polluted water to freshwater and allows the use of solar energy for off-the-grid water purification. The Nov. 14 showcase highlighted the role of federally funded university research in fueling entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness across the country. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Association of American Universities in partnership with the National Academy of Inventors and VentureWell hosted the event. 

Read More: Rice News Article

 

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