Newsletter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• CLEAN Initiative

• Energy Fellowship

• External Advisory Committee

• GPAC Retreat

• Profiles

• Hooked on Photonics

• Larry Dalton

• NSF Site Visit

• IT Update

• Calendar

CLEAN Initiative

By Rad Roberts, Intellectual Property Manager

Clean energy solutions will have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives, including global health, transportation, communication, computing, lighting, national security, and our economy. Meeting the world’s energy needs in a clean and cost-effective manner may be the greatest challenge of our generation. Breakthrough technologies that address this challenge are emerging right here in Washington, including several at UW in nanomaterials and photonics (using light for signal generation, detection and manipulation/processing). To leverage world-class research in these areas, a Steering Committee of local business, civic, and UW representatives was formed under the leadership of CMDITR’s Emeritus Executive Director Alvin Kwiram. The main goal of this group is to help position the Pacific Northwest as a leading energy research center and create an industry cluster focused on energy technologies.

Last year the Steering Committee sponsored and developed "Nanophotonics for Breakfast", a series of six lectures at the Rainier Club in downtown Seattle, to inform the wider business community about the significant opportunities for potential commercial developments in nanomaterials and photonics. Each event focused on a different application area: solid-state lighting and displays, biophotonics, sensors, telecommunications, computing, and solar cells. On average, about 90 people attended each event, including a mix of industry, civic, and academic leaders and other professionals. Videos, podcasts, and supplementary reading from the series are available online:
http://depts.washington.edu/nanophot/.

Encouraged by the enthusiastic response of the community, the Steering Committee considered how to catapult this effort to a higher level of intensity and impact. The outgrowth of those deliberations was the decision to launch a major regional energy initiative based on the considerable strengths in organic and hybrid photonics and nanomaterials at the UW. The proposed Clean Low-cost Energy through Advanced Nanomaterials (CLEAN) initiative will focus on organic solar cells, organic solid state lighting, photocatalysis to use solar energy to split water to create hydrogen fuels, improved battery technologies, and novel organic-silicon hybrid electro-optic devices to reduce energy usage in computers and telecommunications. The CLEAN initiative already involves over two dozen faculty from a half dozen departments at the UW and has been endorsed by the Deans of the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. The President and the Provost have approved this as a major UW initiative.

The broad outline of the CLEAN initiative was presented in a forum at the annual Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Leadership Conference on October 22, 2008. Fifty members of the Chamber attended the CLEAN forum and participated in a lively discussion about the project. Many of the remaining 250 Chamber Members were able to talk with UW CLEAN representatives and see working demonstrations of early-stage solar cell and telecommunications devices.

The next step in the CLEAN initiative is to expand the effort to include representatives from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, local companies, and other institutions. The expanded team will work on building a roadmap for the initiative, rallying endorsements and financial support for the project, continuing to strengthen and coordinate research efforts within UW and across institutional boundaries, streamlining the pathway for technology commercialization, and working to develop ways to help early-stage start-up companies identify the capital, financial, and technical resources necessary to succeed.

With a little luck and a lot of hard work, the CLEAN initiative will speed the delivery of compelling renewable energy solutions to the public and spur new economic activity in the Pacific Northwest around the development and commercialization of these technologies.

Doe Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship Program

by Tracee Weaver

In summer 2008 I participated in the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship program sponsored by the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Fuel (USDOE-OFF). I was placed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, which is located near the Hanford Site. During WWII this was the site where uranium was processed into plutonium for nuclear warheads. Consequently, much of the USDOE’s current efforts at this lab focus on nuclear waste cleanup. I worked in the Sensor Materials lab located in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) building. My summer research mentor, Dr. Marvin Warner, is part of the Interfacial Chemistry and Engineering department under the Chemical and Material Sciences Division. Under his advisement, I studied CdSe quantum dots based thin film formations which have implications for the development of quantum dot-based scintillation technology for radiation detectors.

My contribution to the project was to find a synthetic methodology for nanoparticle thin film formations without a supporting matrix for the purpose of radioluminescence studies. I was required to do an extensive literature search, noting for my mentor what fabrication techniques would provide ease and low cost. I independently addressed challenges of particular fabrication techniques and reported my findings to Dr. Warner along with my experimental approach for tackling these issues. By the end of the 10-week stay, I was able to produce promising quantum dot thin film formations for the radioluminescence studies.

The experience was enriching to my academic and professional development. Although significant time was spent working in the lab, our curriculum included weekly enrichment sessions and research lectures. As a part of this fellowship, I submitted a paper and presented my research at a technical forum in Chicago to USDOE-OFF, Chevron, and Schlumberger representatives. The forum included lab tours of Argonne and Fermi National Laboratories. I also participated in local events, such as the Battelle Staff Association Salmon Bake and the Columbia Cup Boat Races. My research mentor, Dr. Marvin Warner, and project manager Elaine King were very supportive.