College of Sciences Hosts Interdisciplinary Seminar on Novel Materials for Health, Energy, and Other Applications
Faculty come together to learn more about the research taking place in their college
By: Emily Dougherty | March 13, 2025
On February 24th, the College of Sciences hosted an interdisciplinary seminar entitled, “Novel Materials for Health, Energy, and Other Applications,” bringing faculty together to share approaches to conducting research from across the College.
Pegasus Professor and Associate Dean of Research Joshua Colwell hosted the event, which featured engaging research presentations from four faculty members, refreshments for guests, and a dynamic Q&A session.
Colwell shared this in-person event is part of a new series of seminars for College of Sciences faculty and special guests to learn more about what is happening in various scientific disciplines and consider opportunities to work together.
First to share his presentation was Professor of Physics, Debashis Chanda, entitled, “Building Uncooled Infrared Camera based on One Atom Thick Graphene”.
Chanda shared with the attendees the importance of infrared imaging, used in fields such as aerospace, space exploration, and security, and novel detectors using a single layer of carbon atoms (graphene).
“The pandemic (Covid-19) showed us that we can use infrared imaging to scan a larger quantity of people at a time,” Chanda says.
Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, Xiaofeng Feng, was second to give his presentation entitled, “Electrochemical Materials and Systems for Sustainable Fuel Production”.
Feng’s research focuses on electrocatalysis and designing processes that can lead to more efficient and sustainable energy sources.
“The majority of the energy sources that have been utilized are fossil fuel, petroleum, coal, and natural gas,” Feng says. “Only 13% of our energy used is renewable energy.”
Duy Le, an associate scientist in the Department of Physics, also presented his talk entitled “Harnessing Imperfections in Energy Material Design”.
He shared that the goal of his research is to understand the mechanism of the reaction on catalysts, which will help design efficient catalysts.
“The reaction doesn’t happen by itself,” Le says. “We need the material of the catalyst so we can break down those reactions into a different step so we can form the product that we want.”
The final person to give their presentation was Associate Professor of Chemistry Andre Gesquiere, with his talk entitled, “Optical and Computational Tools and Approaches for Novel Materials in Health and Energy”.
Gesquiere presented an overview of his experimental research program on nanoparticles in biological systems.
“My background is in single molecule spectroscopy,” Gesquiere says. “My lab has the tools to detect individual molecules and extract their properties.”
Once the four panelists concluded their talks, faculty participated in an interactive Q&A session led by Colwell.
The next Interdisciplinary Seminar held by the College of Sciences will be on April 14th on the topic of Quantum Information Science. Faculty who would like more information on how to attend can reach out to Joshua Colwell.