Pleasant Valley High School of Bettendorf defeated Dubuque Wahlert High School (Dubuque, IA) 74-44 to capture the 2013 Ames Laboratory/Iowa State University Regional High School Science Bowl on Jan. 26. Pleasant Valley, which lost only one match all day — the very first match of the morning qualifying round, advances to the Department of Energy’s …Continue reading “Pleasant Valley wins 2013 High School Science Bowl”
The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that a team led by The Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, has been selected for an award of up to $120 million over five years to establish an Energy Innovation Hub that will develop solutions to the domestic shortages of rare earth metals and other materials critical for …Continue reading “Ames Laboratory to lead DOE Energy Innovation Hub”
Two scientists at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed a computational method that will make the search for new catalysts more precise and less painstaking. In turn, the discovery could speed the development of efficient hydrogen storage materials, one of the technological obstacles for getting greener, cleaner hydrogen fuel cell vehicles …Continue reading “Ames Laboratory scientists develop better search tool for nanoalloys”
Iowa State University’s College of Engineering has named Kristen Constant chair of its materials science and engineering program. Her appointment will begin July 1, 2012. Constant was identified through an internal search to replace Richard LeSar, chair since 2006, who is stepping down to devote more time to his research activities. Constant, a native of …Continue reading “Kristen Constant named chair of Iowa State’s materials science and engineering program”
MSE graduates and postdoc research associates Joel Rieken and Andy Heidloff are competing in the Department of Energy’s America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge. The duo started the company Iowa Power Atomization Technologies (IPAT) to bring titanium powder, a substance that can be used in military, biomedical, and aerospace applications, to market. Their technology uses a …Continue reading “Vote for Iowa State engineers in America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge”
The Nobel Foundation today announced Dan Shechtman of Iowa State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, and Israel’s Technion has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The foundation announced The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences picked Shechtman “for the discovery of quasicrystals.” That 1982 discovery of …Continue reading “MSE professor wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry”
The Nobel Foundation today announced Dan Shechtman of Iowa State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, and Israel’s Technion has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The foundation announced The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences picked Shechtman “for the discovery of quasicrystals.” That 1982 discovery …Continue reading “MSE professor wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry”
Bob Lipert held up a syringe, attached a plastic cartridge and demonstrated how chemistry developed at Iowa State University is helping astronauts and cosmonauts make sure they have safe drinking water at the International Space Station. Each cartridge contains a thin, one-centimeter disk that’s loaded with chemistry, said Lipert, an associate scientist with Iowa State’s …Continue reading “Iowa State chemists help astronauts make sure their drinking water is clean”
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Ames Laboratory has a long history of conducting materials research, particularly in the rare earths. The Lab’s first director, Frank Spedding has been called the father of rare earths and mentored a graduate student named Karl Gschneidner back in 1952. Fast forward to the present, and Ames Lab senior …Continue reading “Ament part of the next generation of rare-earth researchers”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa Powder Atomization Technologies have joined forces in DOE’s America’s Next Top Energy Innovator challenge to create jobs in Iowa. The program gives start-up companies the opportunity to sign an option to license technologies created by national laboratories at reduced costs. On June 30, IPAT signed an …Continue reading “Ames Laboratory participates in Department of Energy innovator challenge”
Karl Gschneidner’s passion for research in rare earth metals is as strong now as it was nearly 60 years ago when he began working with these materials. He says it’s exciting science that allows him to make new discoveries often, with each finding enticing him to come back to see what the next day will …Continue reading “Gschneidner named MRS Fellow”
Karl Gschneidner Jr., a senior metallurgist for the Ames Laboratory and Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, will play a key role in the cooperative research and development agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Molycorp Inc., the Western hemisphere’s only producer of rare-earth oxides. The Molycorp-Ames Laboratory effort …Continue reading “Gschneidner to lead Ames Lab research in developing new methods to create rare-earth magnets”
The dream of developing a mass-marketable hydrogen-powered vehicle has eluded automotive designers for decades. But the work of Vitalij Pecharsky, senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, may someday make it a reality. Since 2005, Pecharsky, also a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering at Iowa State, has been researching hydrogen-rich …Continue reading “MSE professor investigates complex metal hydride potential for hydrogen storage”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is one of only 20 sites around the country selected to be a coalition partner for the prestigious “Making Stuff” television program. As a partner, the Lab, along with Iowa State’s Materials Research Society and Material Advantage student organizations, will be hosting more than 20 outreach events. Making …Continue reading “Ames Laboratory named “Making Stuff” coalition partner”
Researchers from Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have developed a process capable of producing a thin and uniform light-absorbing layer on textured substrates that improves the efficiency of polymer solar cells by increasing light absorption. “Our technology efficiently utilizes the light trapping scheme,” said Sumit Chaudhary, an Iowa State assistant professor of electrical …Continue reading “Chaudhary fabricates more efficient polymer solar cells”
