Oak Ridge National Lab

On a summer fellowship from the US Department of Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, I worked for ten weeks with the Surface Chemistry and Heterogeneous Catalysis Group, under Dr. Aditya Savara.

I conducted complex molecular-beam experiments on perovskite crystals to characterize the surface kinetics of catalytic reactions of organic alcohols. Reactions of this type could eventually have industrial-scale applications in the production of biofuels. I also designed and fabricated an innovative ”heating enhancement” for our effusive molecular beam, which may result in a patent. I designed a poster (which will be presented at this year’s American Chemical Society conference) detailing our results, and submitted a publication-length research report to the Department of Energy.

A description of my summer research was included in an article published by NYU.