Nov 29 2007
During the 2007 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting now taking place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Bruker AXS, a leading global provider of advanced X-ray solutions for life and advanced materials sciences, announced the recipient of its 2007 Excellence in X-ray Diffraction (XRD) scholarship -- based on unique experiments performed by university students. Recognizing academic achievement in advanced XRD, Bruker AXS yesterday presented its $6,000 scholarship for the most unique application in the field of materials research.
This year the annual Bruker AXS XRD $6,000 scholarship has gone to Ph.D. student Michelene E. Miller at Alfred University for her research paper "Novel Processing of Microporous Glass-Ceramics for Gas Separation." She is advised by Dr. Scott T. Misture, Professor of Materials Science at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, NY. "Using high temperature XRD, we determined that nickel-doped cordierite glass-ceramics are candidates for application as permeability-controlled microporous membranes to separate out carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases in fossil fuel power plants, both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and generating hydrogen," explains Miller.
Professor Misture's group studies the dynamic behavior of oxide ceramics and glasses related to energy conversion devices. Projects generally rely on detailed in-situ characterization using X-rays and neutrons to understand the relationships between structure and properties. Their recent work has focused on the effects of atmosphere and humidity on structure, phase stability, and conductivity at high temperature.
Their current research focuses on materials for solid oxide fuel cells and hydrogen production. Funded by the NSF, DOE, EPA, and other agencies, their work centers on solid oxide fuel cells and photocatalysts.
This year's runner-up is Ph.D. student Qian Zhang from the University of Montreal. His research paper is entitled, "A simple XRD setup to track in situ the evolution of structural order in polymer liquid crystals exposed to solvent vapour." Qian Zhang's research concentrates on physical and optical studies of azo-surfactomesogen/polyelectrolyte complexes. He is advised by Professor C. Geraldine Bazuin of the University of Montreal's Department of Chemistry. Professor Bazuin's research concentrates on the development of novel supramolecular and nanostructured polymeric materials. "Our particular areas of interest include liquid crystalline materials, block copolymers, blends, ionomers, nanopatterns on surfaces, ultrathin films, and applications in optoelectronics and gene delivery," indicates Professor Bazuin.
The scholarship winner and runner-up have been selected by an independent panel of judges: Dr. Tom Blanton from Eastman Kodak; Dr. Jim Kaduk from Innovene and current Board Chairman of the International Centre for Diffraction Data; Dr. Pam Whitfield from National Research Council Canada; Dr. Jim Britten from McMaster University; and Dr. Nattamai Bhuvanesh, Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University.
"We are quite pleased again this year to provide a Bruker XRD scholarship to another extraordinary student," says Uwe Preckwinkel, Bruker AXS XRD Sales and Marketing Manager. "Both Bruker AXS and the judges are most impressed by the quality of the XRD experiments all these future X-ray scientists have performed, and the valuable scientific results they have obtained," adds Dr. Frank Burgaezy, Executive Vice President of Bruker AXS in charge of the company's global XRD and XRF business.
Bruker AXS scientists are available at the Company's MRS Fall Meeting booth (Number 300) to discuss the award and all the student research findings. Bruker AXS has published the various papers on a CD now being distributed to the press, MRS Meeting attendees, other scientists, and research libraries worldwide.
The MRS Fall Meeting is providing a unique opportunity to present innovative products and services to over 5,000 attendees from all sectors of the global materials science and engineering communities.