2019 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

SRU Students and Faculty Collaborate on Research Project at Berkeley Lab

Thanks to a faculty-student research grant from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and a connection between a Slippery Rock University computer science professor and a Berkeley employee, three SRU students were hired as temporary Berkeley employees, joining the more than 4,200 scientists, engineers, faculty, postdoctoral scholars and graduate and undergraduate students currently on staff.

Cornell Researchers Quantify Photocurrent Loss in Particle Interface

A group led by Peng Chen, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell, has, for the first time, quantified the current loss that occurs in particle-to-particle interfaces in solar panels, which could inform future designs.

X-rays Reveal Why Adding a Bit of Salt Improves Perovskite Solar Cells

A team of researchers has reported new findings about perovskites that could pave the way to developing low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells. Using high-intensity X-ray mapping, they explain why adding small amounts of cesium and rubidium salt improves the performance of a promising class of solar cell materials, called lead-halide perovskites.

From Iowa Farm to UI Physics Faculty

Jan Nachtman, the associate professor in the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy has become a leading figure in her field, is working with scientists at the world’s largest particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, to search for clues to how the universe was created.

Predicting the existence of Heavy Nuclei Using Machine Learning

A collaboration between the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) and the Department of Statistics and Probability (STT) at Michigan State University (MSU) estimated the boundaries of nuclear existence by applying statistical analysis to nuclear models, and assessed the impact of current and future FRIB experiments.

UK Research Probes Nanomaterials in Plants at Cellular Level

A national team of scientists, led by University of Kentucky’s Jason Unrine, used the most powerful X-ray microscope on the planet to discover how nanomaterials enter and move within tomato plants on the cellular level.

Droughts Boost Emissions as Hydropower Dries Up

Recent droughts caused increases in emissions of carbon dioxide and harmful air pollutants from power generation in several western states as fossil fuels came online to replace hampered hydroelectric power. A new study quantifies the impact.

Scientists Program Proteins to Pair Exactly

A team at the University of Washington School of Medicine have developed new protein design algorithms that produce complementary proteins that precisely pair with each other using the same chemical language of DNA.

Running an LED in Reverse Could Cool Future Computers

In a finding that runs counter to a common assumption in physics, researchers at the University of Michigan ran a light emitting diode (LED) with electrodes reversed in order to cool another device mere nanometers away.

Researchers Capture an Image of Negative Capacitance in Action

For the first time ever, an international team of researchers imaged the microscopic state of negative capacitance. This novel result provides researchers with fundamental, atomistic insight into the physics of negative capacitance, which could have far-reaching consequences for energy-efficient electronics.

Researchers Discover New Evidence of Superconductivity at Near Room Temperature

Researchers at the George Washington University have taken a major step toward reaching one of the most sought-after goals in physics: room temperature superconductivity.

The Dynamics of Light-Harvesting Chemistry

A new paper provides insights into the chemistry that underlies human-made, light-driven catalytic systems and paves the way to better understand how light-induced reactions can be controlled more effectively.