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I recognize that technical challenges are matched with the necessity to communicate to the general community both the obstacles and potential value of such technologies.With this in mind,I have made it a personal responsibility to reach out and educate others beyond the university. I have been involved in outreach programs with goals similar to those of GK-12, and have both designed and led workshops hosted at Cornell for middle and high school aged students. I feel there is great significance in inspiring students at a young age and making them aware of the possibility of a future in science and engineering.By working with their teachers to keep up with this enthusiasm, I hope to transform the students' students’ perhaps far-fetched dreams into reality. As a GK-12 Fellow, I look forward to growing as an educator, mentor and communicator and have been awarded the privilege to pursue my scientific curiosity while sharing my excitement with the broader public through the initiatives at the heart of the GK-12 program.
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During the past two decades, the materials science community has witnessed revolutionary advances in the synthesis of novel nanometer scale materials with precisely controlled size, shape and composition. Our ability to control the properties of these "building blocks" “building blocks” has enabled us to study light-matter interactions and apply our understanding towards the development of nanomaterial-enabled technologies like photoelectrochemical cells and photovoltaics that combine low cost processing routes and high efficiencies. Photoelectrochemical cells provide us the ability to convert light to electrical energy or fuels like hydrogen. Photovoltaics can generate electrical energy from light. These technologies have great importance for our future given the fact that the fossil fuels we currently rely on to produce energy won't won’t last forever, in addition to the harmful byproducts they often produce (e.g., CO2 which results in global warming).
Scientists and engineers are faced with the challenge of integrating these nanoscale materials with existing technologies at the micrometer length scale and beyond. To bridge this gap, my research in the group of Dr. UliWiesner (http://people.ccmr.cornell.edu/~uli/res_energy.htm) explores opportunities at the bridge between ordered three-dimensional electrodes(the part of the device which functions to extract the charge in order to convert it to electricity) and semiconductor nanostructures with tunable optical and electronic properties (e.g., light absorption and electrical conductivity, respectively).Wiesner's Wiesner’s research team has pioneered techniques to use self-assembling block copolymer nanostructures of soft, organic polymer materials as templates for nanoporous metal oxide films (shown below). These can then be used as scaffolds that are ideally suited as three-dimensional electrodes. My current work focuses on exploiting these opportunities to further advance the development of next-generation energy materials, particularly those used in photoelectrochemical cells and photovoltaics. The insights and design rules established in these studies have important implications on the development of many nano-enabled technologies including high-performance light-emitting diodes, batteries and thermoelectric devices.
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