Award Data

Soil health is an important factor in ensuring long term agricultural production and food security- Soil microbial activity is crucial to nutrient cycling and soil fertility, but it is strongly dependent upon environmental variables, such as temperature, humidity, and nutrient and oxygen content- Technology that probes soil microbial activity in real time with spatial fidelity is needed to better ...

Light-absorbing aerosols can influence the global radiation budget and thermodynamic balance of the planet by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface and heating their surroundings- At present, most aerosol absorption measurement techniques collect the airborne samples on a filter substrate and then measure light attenuation due to the collected samples- The filter-based methods usual ...

Understanding the role that aerosols play in atmospheric radiative forcing is currently the major focus of the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Sciences Program- Aerosol particles affect the radiative balance of the earth directly, by scattering and absorbing solar and terrestrial radiation, and indirectly, by acting as cloud condensation nuclei- It is now recognized that the atmospheric loa ...

Many applications involved in real-time data collection need to monitor their data while it is being collected- This need occurs in a large and growing number of applications that use common scientific hierarchical data formats for data management, such as aircraft flight testing, autonomous vehicles, particle accelerators, and many more- There are two shortcomings to these formats that make it di ...

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has a significant potential for use in a variety of applications, such as transportation, backup, and portable power, although there are still remaining technical and cost challenges that must be solved for commercialization- The DOE has recognized the importance of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) and has requested innovative GDL designs that will impro ...

As the world continues to rely more heavily on connectivity, it becomes more and more imperative that the networks that support the technical applications leverage intelligence to guide the network operations management- These networks and the applications that utilize them produce massive complex data that range from structured, unstructured, geo‐spatial, images, real and historical to name a f ...

Next generation rare isotope beam facilities will be a critical component of the Department of Energy mission to understand the fundamental forces and particles of nature manifested in nuclear matter- These facilities require a huge financial investment for construction, and it is crucial to achieve and maintain maximum operation efficiency to enable uninterrupted use of the facilities- In produci ...

Commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology typically relies on the same type of ionomer in the catalyst layer as are used for the fuel cell membrane- However, the desired properties for the ionomer in the catalyst layer and the ionomer used in the membrane should be different- This results in poor fuel cell performance particularly for low-platinum and high-power operations- Th ...

In polymer electrode membrane fuel cells, gas diffusion media plays a critical role in reactant gas diffusion and water management- Often, a gas diffusion media that has excellent water removal properties under high humidity may not perform well under dry conditions, or vice versa- Therefore, it is essential to develop a robust gas diffusion media design which meets the performance requirements ac ...

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are exciting for many reasons and are one of the more advanced alternative energy technologies to realize early commercialization – fuel cell powered vehicles are on the road- The gas diffusion layer is a critical component in these fuel cell systems which not only controls water and reactant transport, but contributes to thermal management, and provide electr ...