Dukovic

Profile: Benjamin Hammel

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Profile: Benjamin Hammel Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2024 - 00:00

Daniel Morton

Ben Hammel is a graduate student in the Dukovic group at CU Boulder, who is using advanced microscopic techniques with Sadegh Yazdi to provide insights into the relationships between materials structures and properties, specifically materials associated with renewable energy research. We caught up with Ben to find out more about what led him to this research area, what excites him about this field of study, and what he gets up to outside the lab.

Where did you grow up?

I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I grew up outside the city limits, on the southwest mesa. There are a lot of alfalfa farms and other agricultural industries around there. One of the really cool things about that part of New Mexico is the rich cultural heritage, there is a lot of cultures coming together, with such a long history. Some of the earliest settlements in the United States are in New Mexico!

What did you get up to as a kid?

I enjoyed exploring outside and hiking. Lots of great mountains near Albuquerque and good camping in northern New Mexico.

What drew you into science and research?

New Mexico is kind of this secret hub for scientific research. There is such a rich community of scientists and researchers there and a long history of amazing work. The Manhattan Project, Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs – they set up these huge institutions for research. These all have a trickle-down effect that has impacted a huge number of people and was definitely something that played a big part in my early thinking.

I started doing research at a really young age. As a freshman in high school, I wrote on my resume that my goal was to become a particle physicist! This got passed along to a retired Sandia National Labs scientist, Pace VanDevender, who then took me under his wing. I worked with him as a summer research assistant that year, and it made me think that my path would lead to working at Sandia.

When I was 16, I had the opportunity to work in a chemistry lab at Sandia National Labs – prior to that I had been all about physics and electrical engineering. I was very much interested in energy research and I was really into building projects and devices, such as a regenerative bicycle braking system. I didn’t really like chemistry and I started from basically nothing. On my first day, the researchers in the lab (LaRico Treadwell and Daniel Yonemoto) took me through my first reaction, how to calculate the amount of reagents and how to mix them – I didn’t even know how to do a mass balance! The support I got from that lab (Tim, Rico, Daniel, Jeremiah, Francesca, Diana, and Fernando to name a few) was fantastic and very rapidly chemistry became my main interest. My mentor, the venerable Timothy J. Boyle, said “Ben, learning chemistry in this lab is like learning how to drive in a Lamborghini!” I had a very flexible school schedule that enabled me to work at Sandia a lot. And I fell in love with chemistry.

So, you were hooked on research at a young age, how did this inform your decisions about university?

I really wanted to find a way to combine my early interest in building things and engineering with my passion for chemistry. The University of Pennsylvania has this program called the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, or VIPER, that gives you the chance to do 2 degrees and that really drew me in. I did chemistry plus materials science and engineering and I stuck with those all the way through.

I was looking for ways to combine making molecules with applications in nanoscience, and that led me to working in the lab of Christopher Murray. I was looking for paid work and my Mom said “You can either work as a dishwasher, or you can work in a chemistry lab”, so I was glad that I persuaded Chris to let me join his lab.

Later during my undergraduate degree, in 2019, I did an internship at NREL, and I ended up working on something completely different, microbubble insulation. This was much more a materials engineering project working with researchers Lin Simpson and Chaiwat Engtrakul. We were gluing bubbles together to form foam bricks for use in insulation. The aim was to try and make something that was cheap, had high performance, and robust to damage and defects.

Coming out of that internship I realized that what really fascinated me was the fundamental chemistry I was doing more than the engineering aspects. I became very interested in the fundamentals of what was happening at the surfaces of these microbubbles, much more than the engineering challenges, and that is what steered me more toward chemistry and materials science.

I really enjoyed my time at NREL, both the research and the opportunities to spend time outdoors, it was one of the big draws when I was looking into graduate school.

Describe the research that you are involved in now

I work on the fundamental end of materials and energy research. We aim to learn how we can make nanomaterials that are better catalysts, which involves fabricating these nanomaterials in an extremely precise fashion, so that we have clear understanding about the materials structure and properties. Of specific interest is the electronic structure, since this impacts how it absorbs light. Armed with this fundamental understanding we can better guide the design of the next generation of materials for energy harvesting, storage, and transport. Working out how the structure of a material influences its properties is what really interests me at the moment.

Your research involves a great deal of collaboration, how has that impacted your work?

I think my experience of working in both engineering and chemistry has helped me connect with folks from different disciplines. I have learned that there are many ways in which teams are forming in the energy sciences, and it’s these teams that are doing the really cool science. It’s also interesting to consider some of the social and economic impacts of doing research and thinking about cost and other factors that are going to dictate which technologies get commercialized.

Early on I wanted to be involved in every part of the research spectrum, from discovery to application. But you can’t do it all. And as I have specialized, I have really enjoyed working as an integral part of bigger research teams, where I can be aware of the big picture, make meaningful contributions through my specialty, and engage and learn from others.

What do you enjoy doing outside of the lab?

I do really enjoy spending time outdoors, but my main hobby is gaming. I play a game called League of Legends, and at one point I was in the top 0.1% of players online. It got pretty competitive and required a ton of work. I entertained the idea of playing professionally. But when I ended up playing against some professional players, I quickly realized there was no chance I could ever go pro! I play a lot more casually now.

What would you say to someone considering a research path?

For me I found that scientists and engineers operate in quite different ways, and when you start taking both sets of classes you rapidly pick up on this. If someone is trying to do the same kind of dual pathway, it is hard at first, but it really is worth persevering. Having expertise in one area is important but having a more general perspective can come in very useful and gives you a broad skillset. You can think at a bunch of different scales, and from different perspectives, which I found challenging at first but have found to be very useful.

What are the future impacts of your research that you are excited about?

I think virtual reality displays are going to bring huge benefits. The most expensive part of these at the moment is the display. Engineering new materials that are super small and super bright will make these really high-resolution. We are going to get this amazing technology that is going to have a lot of great practical applications, I think VR will be a game changer.

Microscopy is also blowing up right now. It is now almost routine to look at atoms, which really changes how you think about and make materials. We are reaching higher and higher levels of precision, which I think is going to open the door to new applications. I don’t know what those are going to be!

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BES: Colloidal nanocrystals to advance catalysis and energy technologies

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

BES: Colloidal nanocrystals to advance catalysis and energy technologies Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/23/2024 - 00:00

Friday August 23, 2024

SEEC C120

2:00 - 3:00 PM

Abstract

Affordable clean energy and climate action are two of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030. The vast majority of energy technologies relies on nanomaterials. The progress of these technologies is strongly connected to the ability of inorganic chemists to tune the function-dictating features of nanomaterials. (i.e. size, composition, composition, morphology). In this talk, I will present our recent group efforts towards the synthesis via colloidal chemistry of atomically defined nanocrystals (NCs) which helps addressing current challenges in catalysis and energy conversion.

Biography

Professor Raffaella Buonsanti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at EPFL. She leads a multidisciplinary research program which spans from nanoscience to materials chemistry and electrocatalysis. She has received an ERC Starting Grant in 2016 and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2022 in addition to numerous awards, including the Swiss Chemical Society Werner Price in 2021, the European Chemical Society Lecture Award and the Royal Chemical Society ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship in 2019, the ACS Inorganic Nanoscience Award in 2024. She is also an Associate Editor of ACS Catalysis.

Raffaella Buonsanti | EPFL, Switzerland

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Colossal Core/Shell CdSe/CdS Quantum Dot Emitters

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Colossal Core/Shell CdSe/CdS Quantum Dot Emitters Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/26/2024 - 00:00

ACS NANO, 2024, 18, 31, 20726-20739

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Ligand Equilibrium Influences Photoluminescence Blinking in CsPbBr3: A Change Point Analysis of Widefield Imaging Data

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Ligand Equilibrium Influences Photoluminescence Blinking in CsPbBr3: A Change Point Analysis of Widefield Imaging Data Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/09/2024 - 00:00

ACS NANO, 2024, 18, 29, 19208-19219

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2024 National Brown Investigator Award

Anonymous — Wed, 29 May 2024 19:07:24 +0000

2024 National Brown Investigator Award Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/29/2024 - 13:07

Daniel Morton

Caltech announces eight recipients of the 2024 National Brown Investigator award, including RASEI Fellow Gordana Dukovic.

Read the press release

Find out more about the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech announced the 2024 class of Brown Investigators. Eight distinguished mid-career faculty who are working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences were selected, which included RASEI Fellow Gordana Dukovic. These investigators were highlighted for their potential for long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics. Each investigator will receive up to $2M over the next five years.

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech was established in 2023 through a $400m gift from Caltech alumnus Ross M. Brown. The investigator award were established in 2020 in support of the belief that “scientific discovery is a driving force in the improvement of the human condition”. A total of 13 investigators were recognized in the first three years of the program, and with the Award now being established at Caltech, the plan is for eight investigators to be selected each year.

Brown Investigators from all cohorts are invited to an annual meeting that offers opportunities to share ideas, network, and develop new collaborations and directions.
Congratulations Gordana!

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Exciton and biexciton transient absorption spectra of CdSe quantum dots with varying diameters

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Exciton and biexciton transient absorption spectra of CdSe quantum dots with varying diameters Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/04/2024 - 00:00

THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 2024, 160, 014708

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High Affinity Electrostatic Interactions Support the Formation of CdS Quantum Dot:Nitrogenase MoFe Protein Complexes

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

High Affinity Electrostatic Interactions Support the Formation of CdS Quantum Dot:Nitrogenase MoFe Protein Complexes Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 00:00

NANO LETTERS, 2023, 23, 22, 10466-10472

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Highlight Feature on how Nanoscientists are Taking on Climate Change

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Highlight Feature on how Nanoscientists are Taking on Climate Change Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/06/2023 - 00:00

This Careers feature article, published in the American Chemical Society's Student Magazine, InChemistry, explores the paths of researchers who are investigating the use of tiny tools to address some of the biggest problems we face with the climate crisis.

Featured in this article is RASEI Fellow Gordana Dukovic, who discusses how her group are using chemical nanotools to convert the energy harvested from the sun into clean fuels as an energy storage solution.

The Dukovic Group

Nanoscientists taking on Climate Change

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Cryo-annealing of Photoreduced CdS Quantum Dot–Nitrogenase MoFe Protein Complexes Reveals the Kinetic Stability of the E4(2N2H) Intermediate

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Cryo-annealing of Photoreduced CdS Quantum Dot–Nitrogenase MoFe Protein Complexes Reveals the Kinetic Stability of the E4(2N2H) Intermediate Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/20/2023 - 00:00

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2023, 145, 39, 21165-21169

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Relationships between Compositional Heterogeneity and Electronic Spectra of (Ga1–xZnx)(N1–xOx) Nanocrystals Revealed by Valence Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Relationships between Compositional Heterogeneity and Electronic Spectra of (Ga1–xZnx)(N1–xOx) Nanocrystals Revealed by Valence Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/17/2023 - 00:00

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C, 2023, 127, 16, 7762-7771

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