Thematic Research Areas:

The faculty from the various cluster areas will work together on thematic research areas. The collaborations will extend to faculty in other departments in the School of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Business, Law and Social Work. Conducting holistic studies in research focus area will allow for the greatest impact.

The three areas that the department will focus on are:

I.  Energy

While energy has long been an important topic, concerns about human’s environmental footprint, such as that due to carbon dioxide, and concerns about security and rapid global development, have recently brought this field to the forefront.  In EECE we are focused on a number of areas critical to the future of energy.  These include technological innovations for fossil fuel systems – with primary emphasis on carbon dioxide mitigation, and control of fine particle and other pollutant emissions. The group is, and will be, working on novel combustion systems for coal, bio-fuels and other fossil fuels. The second area of research is the collaborative, systems approach planned for bio-fuels development from plant based sources and environmentally-benign adaptation and implementation.  A synergistic approach to power generation that is carbon dioxide neutral is being considered wherein next generation bio-refineries are located adjacent to coal fired power plants.  Finally, we are tapping into our strengths in advanced materials to accelerate the development and implementation of cost effective solar-based technologies.  Current research foci include solar photo-electrochemistry, photocatalysis, bio-inspired solar materials, design of solar nanocomposites based on plasmonic physics, and multi-scale materials. These will serve as a nuclei for further complementary growth. Our vision for the Energy and Environment area is to hire strategically in high impact areas that compliment existing strengths, with the goal to address nationally recognized basic research needs that will spark the innovations necessary to close the enormous gap that exists between state-of-the-art technology and the staggering requirements for a future of renewable energy.

II.  Advanced Materials

Advances in nanoscience and engineering, analytical tools and computation offer tremendous opportunities to design the function of materials and chemical processes at the molecular level to address the grand challenges that need to be overcome to realize a renewable energy future, which is intimately connected to resolving environmental challenges related to global climate change. EECE is ideally positioned to be a major contributor in this area. The existing strengths in knowledge-based synthesis and manufacturing of nanomaterials, especially solar nanomaterials, via aerosol, liquid-phase self-assembly and laser-induced self-organization routes, materials characterization and multiscale modeling and simulations have already resulted in high impact research in energy materials.   In this regard, future expansion will focus on experimental and theoretical/computational research aimed at novel synthesis/manufacturing routes, photon/electron/ion/phonon transport in novel materials, multiscale biological and synthetic materials and materials for energy storage/release as well as acquisition of instrumentation for time- and space- resolved measurements that will enable the determination of processing-structure-function relationships, especially for temporally evolving systems. It is anticipated that this growing core group in advanced materials will interact closely with CMI, I-CARES and other strategic initiatives that will benefit from expertise in advanced materials.

The faculty in the Department are members of the University wide Center of Materials Innovation, and look forward to enhancing collaborative ties. The Department also takes the lead in the maintenance of satellite facilities for advanced materials characterization.

III. Sustainable Technologies for Environmental Health and International Development

Sustainable engineering is built on the application of scientific and mathematical principles and consideration of economic factors that are central to chemical and environmental engineering. Sustainable engineering principles extend the investigation and development of specific processes or products to consider their full life-cycles and their social and economic impacts in addition to its technological performance. Sustainable processes and products pay economic and environmental dividends. Areas of coverage will include benign synthesis routes, reaction engineering, plant-based synthesis routes, and environmental remediation.

The department is uniquely positioned to examine approaches for development of sustainable technologies that will play an important role in aiding global development.  Another area of interest is the role of the environment in public health problems of global dimensions, including the spread of infectious diseases.  Technologies that provide for clean air and clean water will be in demand across the entire world in the upcoming years. Sustainable water quality and water quantity are crucial to protecting human health and maintaining health ecosystems.  Emerging contaminants, which include nanomaterials, pharmaceuticals, and other synthetic organic compounds, pose challenges to environmental health.  Urban water quality is a critical component of environmental health, and interdisciplinary research will investigate the linkages among land use, water quantity, water quality, and urban ecosystems.  The development of sensors and an associated cyberinfrastructure can enrich this research and also provide a means of public communication of environmental health indicators.  With increasing stress placed on finite water and energy resources, technologies for water reuse must continue to be developed and the intersection between energy and water supply optimized.  Sustainable air quality and technologies that provide for clean air will be paramount in a rapidly developing world.  The direct linkage of adverse health effects in both urban and rural areas to poor air quality further illustrates the needs for better understanding of this linkage and the development of effective technologies.

Effective work in this arena will be possible by building collaborations with the Schools of Medicine and Social Work.  New programs that interface the social dimensions of technology adaptation to legal and policy issues will be explored. The Tyson Research Center presents a unique opportunity for performing experiments that link environmental parameters with ecosystem health.   With support of the McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environment Partnership (MAGEEP) and the International Center on Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), new technologies and policies will be explored for applications in the developing world.