Advanced Energy Materials Laboratory

PEOPLE

Faculty

Prof. Ryan O'Hayre

Dr. Ryan O'Hayre is an Associate Professor in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. O'Hayre received his BS in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 1999, and his Ph.D in Materials Science at Stanford University in 2004. After receiving his PhD, Ryan spent several additional years at Stanford as an acting assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. O'Hayre developed and taught Stanford's first ever class on fuel cell science and technology and co-authored a textbook on the same subject (Fuel Cell Fundamentals, John Wiley and Sons, 2006). Dr. O'Hayre spent 2005 as an NSF international postdoctoral fellow at the Technical University of Delft, in the Netherlands, researching 3D nanostructured inorganic solar cells. Dr. O'Hayre's research interests broadly cover materials and device aspects related to fuel cell and solar cell technologies as well as electrochemistry, catalysis, and scanned probe microscopies. Dr. O'Hayre has authored or co-authored over twenty papers in these fields and holds several patents related to fuel cell technology.

Dr. Jianhua Tong

Dr. Jianhua Tong joins CSM as an Assistant Research Professor of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering. He received his PhD degree in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China). Subsequently, he worked as NEDO project researcher in Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (Japan), JSPS fellow in National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan), and postdoctoral scholar in California Institute of Technology (US) for several years. He has made some important contributions to the science and technology of high efficiency energy conversion in fields of inorganic membrane reactor, pure hydrogen production, pure oxygen production, natural gas conversion, solid oxide fuel cell, and mixed conducting oxides. About 100 papers, patents, talks, and posters were published, which were cited more than 600 times. He was also invited as referee for more than 20 international journals.

Postdoc

Dr. Svitlana Pylypenko

Research: Dr. Svitlana Pylypenko is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department at CSM with a joint appointment at the Hydrogen Technologies & Systems Center at NREL. After receiving her PhD in Chemistry she spent a couple years as a postdoc at the Chemical Engineering department at the University of New Mexico. Currently she is working on a number of fuel cell related projects where she combines her surface analysis expertise and experience in development and characterization of novel materials and structures for fuel cell applications. As she likes to "dig" through the data, she applies multivariate analysis techniques to draw correlations between processes-properties-structure-performance relevant to renewable energy technologies.

Dr. Prabhuram Joghee

Research: Dr. Prabhuram Joghee is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at CSM. He received his Ph.D. degree at Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli in India. After completing his Ph.D., he worked as a scientist at High Energy Batteries (I) Ltd.,(company) in India for a couple of years. Then, he pursued his post-doc nearly for three and a half years at department of Mechanical Engineering in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong. Subsequently, he joined as a visiting scientist under the Brain Pool Program in Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul, South Korea. His research interest broadly covers materials and MEA fabrication for fuel cell applications, particularly for DMFC. He has authored and co-authored nearly 30 papers in the international journals. Currently, he has been focusing on MEA fabrication for DMFC to improve its initial and long-term performances by collaborating with DMFC team at Hydrogen Technologies & Systems Center at NREL.

Graduate Students

Robert Pasquarelli

Research: My research interests focus on renewable energy, particularly projects in which I can fuse my chemist insight with an applied materials outlook. In order to apply my science practically, I require a better understanding of materials, which is why I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Materials Science. My current research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory focuses on solution deposition and inkjet printing of metal contacts and transparent conducting oxides for solar cells. I am also working for Dr. O'Hayre investigating the catalyst/support interaction of Pt on N-doped graphite for direct methanol fuel cells.

Hobbies: Hobbies you ask? I am a grad student. I don't have time for hobbies, but if I were I would enjoy hiking, climbing, biking, graphic design, and anime.

Michael Sanders

Research: Current research is focused on exploiting the novel steam-permeation behavior of some proton conducting ceramics in order to create high permeability membranes for various energy related applications. Areas that may benefit from incorporation of steam-permeable membranes include solid oxide fuel cells, membrane reformers, and coal gasification. The majority of work is concentrated on yttria- or gadolinia-doped barium cerates, although barium zirconates also show promise. The goal is to characterize the steam-permeation properties and tailor new materials to maximize both the steam flux and membrane lifetime.

Hobbies: My wife and I enjoy fine dining, traveling and the occasional concert.

Prakash Periasamy

Prakash joined Ryan's group at the Colorado School of Mines in Spring'08. Prakash received his BE in Metallurgical Engineering from University of Madras in 2001. He joined Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), India as a research staff in 2002 and served DMRL till 2005. During this period, he worked on joining of ceramics and metals employing active metal brazing technique.In spring 2006, he joined Boise State University (BSU) for his master's degree. Prof. Darryl Butt at BSU was his master's thesis advisor. His master's thesis work is on "Compatibility assessment of HfN, ZrN and Graphite in the molten salt of LiCl-KCl-NaCl-UCl₃" and this project is funded by Idaho National Laboratory.

Research: For his doctoral studies, Prakash will be working on Rectenna and Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCO's) related to solar energy research. His project is funded by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) At NREL, he is mentored by Dr.Dave Ginley and Dr.Philip Parilla.

Hobbies: I enjoy watching movies (a lot), listening songs, playing pool, ping-pong and also love cooking. Currently getting interest in web page designing and to learn to use and become a pro in mac (in my new mac book- courtesy NREL).

Yi Ke

Yi joined Ryan's group after receiving her BS in Optoelectric Engineering from UESTC in 2008 fall. Renewable energy has been her biggest passion since her 19th birthday, and now she can eat, sleep and breath it everyday. Oh Yeah!

Research: Her current research in NREL is on doped ZnMgO, a very cool Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) which has a widely application in PV devices, display, smart window, etc. The goal is to develop a TCO system with tunable bandgap and conductivity, meanwhile gain the fundamental understanding on doping mechanism in TCO.

Hobbies: Reading, cooking, movies, music, jogging, meditation and sleep.

Ann Deml

Research: With an undergraduate degree in chemistry and physics, I am pursuing a Ph.D. in materials science so that I may continue integrating these fascinating areas of science. I am currently working with the Nanoionics group within the Renewable Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (REMRSEC) to investigate the fundamental physics of space charge effects. Space charge effects can result in changes in ion concentrations at the interfaces of dissimilar materials and indicate potential in renewable energy applications. I am focusing on the design of an ionic transistor as a mechanism for examining these phenomena.

Hobbies: I love recreating and spending time outdoors. Therefore, I also enjoy rock climbing, swimming, hiking, waterskiing, fishing, Ultimate Frisbee, snowshoeing, alpine skiing, camping… and more. I also ensure time for baking, sewing, gardening, travel, family, and other relationships.

Jason Fish

Research: Pursuing an MS and PhD in the Materials Science program. Currently synthesizing and characterizing novel donor-doped strontium titanate materials for use as cathodes in solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOEC). A wide variety of experimental techniques are being applied to these materials, including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman analysis, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Detailed information about microstructure, conductivity, and electrocatalytic performance are being sought in this project. SOEC technology shows promise for production of synthesis gas (H₂ + CO), which can be catalyzed into fuels and utilized in today's engines and generators.

Additionally, collaborating on a project to model space charge layers in yttritum-doped barium cerate (BCY) ceramics imbedded with palladium (Pd) nanoparticles. Will be running case studies in a finite element modeling (FEM) program developed by Chris Goodyer at the University of Leeds, systematically changing the Pd concentration and dispersion, the applied voltage, and other relevant parameters. This project is done in tandem with Archana Subramaniyan's experimental work on this material. Her results will be used to improve the model and compare simulations.

Hobbies: I thoroughly enjoy the spectacular outdoors of my native Colorado, biking, backpacking, snowboarding, camping, and playing ultimate frisbee whenever I can find the time. I recommend snow-caving! My wife and I spend our free time bowling, dancing, carousing with friends, and sampling microbrew beer.

Daniel Clark

Research: I am currently working with Dr. Jianhua Tong in proton conducting ceramics, including LaSrCrMnO₃ (LSCM) and BaZrYO₃, in an attempt to make lower temperature and therefore less expensive high performing SOFC nodes. I have previously worked with Dr. Ryan O'Hayre in cathode optimization for passive air-breathing PEMFCs. I am pursuing a BS in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and am apart of AIChE and also hope to work in developing the future of renewable energy.

Hobbies: I enjoy playing guitar in my band (Virga), hockey, mountain biking, hiking/sightseeing, geeky computer stuff, and video games

Archana Subramaniyan

Stephen Nikodemski

Kevin Wood

Research: I received my undergraduate degree in Physics and I am currently pursuing a Masters and Ph.D. Material Science to explore the exciting bridge between chemistry and physics. My current research work focuses on increasing fuel cell catalyst durability through carbon support doping and other fuel cell catalyst interactions. This project is part of a larger collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is in cooperation with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. As an undergraduate I working on biomemetic and optically sensitive smart surfaces as well as hetro-junction photovoltatics. At the University of Colorado Colorado Springs I worked with Dr. Anatoliy Gluschenko on stressed liquid crystal displays.

Hobbies:I love climbing, hiking, skiing, and anything else outdoors. I am also involved in helping with local youth at my church and the Mines swim team.