Dr. Aaron Catledge Awarded NSF Grant

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Aaron Catledge. He has been awarded a new NSF DMR award as a PI starting a new area of research in UAB physics. The Project is titled: New frontiers in synthesis of high-entropy transition metal borides enabled by microwave-induced plasma.

The significance of this project is that it addresses the need for advanced ceramics as a key enabling technology for many applications in aerospace, defense, power generation, and processing industries having significant national impact. The study of materials designed for operation under harsh conditions is essential to meet a range of challenges—from creating better turbines, reactors, and batteries to developing future energy systems. 

You can read the full technical and non-technical summary here.

Best wishes to Dr. Catledge the very best in the execution of this award!

Physics graduate student Kallol Chakrabarty awarded EPSCoR Graduate Research Scholars Program award

Congratulations to Kallol Chakrabarty on being awared one of five Graduate Research Scholars Programs award.

UAB News reported: Five University of Alabama at Birmingham graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences and Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine were awarded Graduate Research Scholars Program awards through the Alabama Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The awards for UAB’s five selected graduate students total more than $118,000 and will apply for the upcoming fall 2022 semester.  

The Graduate Research Scholars Program is designed to strengthen and enhance the research capacity of eight participating Alabama EPSCoR institutions by providing graduate student support for students performing federally funded EPSCoR research. The students in the UAB Graduate School represent the next generation of researchers and innovators for the advancement of Alabama’s high-tech human resource capacity. Read the full article here.

REU Alumni Update: Aaditya Rau

Congratulations to 2019 REU, Aaditya Rau who graduated Spring 2022 from Johns Hopkins University. Aaditya graduated with a double major in the fields of Engineering Mechanics and Applied Mathematics & Statistics and a minor in Mathematics. He will be attending graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA under the Computational Science and Engineering program with a home department in Aeronautics/Astronautics.

In addition, since his time here at UAB, he received the Goldwater Scholarship in 2021, and just received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) to fund my graduate study.

Congratulations to Aaditya and we wish him the very best.

CNMB Partners in $20 Million Statewide Effort Funded by NSF

Nine Alabama universities and one private firm are partnered in a new $20 million, five-year effort led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) to develop transformative technologies in plasma science and engineering (PSE) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

The grant is entitled “Future Technologies enabled by Plasma Processes” (FTPP) and will be for a five-year duration (2022-2027) to explore plasma synthesized novel materials, surface modified biomaterials, food safety and sterilization, and space weather prediction.

Yogesh Vohra, Ph.D., associate dean for University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and professor university scholar in the Department of Physics, serves as a co-principal investigator and UAB’s Institutional (continue reading here).

REU Alumni Update Reshu Chandra

Reshu Chandra participated in our 2021 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. She graduated from UAB on Saturday, April 30, 2022 with a major in Neuroscience and minors in Chemistry and Philosophy, Summa Cum Laude with High Distinguished Honors from the Science & Technology Honors Program. This upcoming year, she will be serve as a research intern with the UAB Center for Exercise Medicine while applying to medical schools. Reshu recently received the “Excellence in Service” Award and the “Exceptional Service & Leadership” Award through UAB as well as induction into the Order of Omega Honor Society, which recognizes the top 3% of the Greek community on campus.

Congratulations to Reshu and we wish her much success.