Center Projects
Including seed grants, sponsored funds and outreach work, Nexus is involved in projects that span across the Colorado School of Mines campus. It has collaborations within the major portfolios, research projects in ten different academic departments, programs and research groups and is involved with several key campus initiatives and institutes.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Diffusion of guests, dopants, and impurity atoms through open cage allotropes of Si and related structures; PI: Carolyn Koh; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Production of Pipeline Grade Renewable Natural Gas and Value-Added Chemicals from Forest Biomass Residues; PI: Carolyn Koh; Sponsor: West Biofuels
Defect States of Silicon Allotropes for Quantum Information Science; PI: Carolyn Koh; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Understanding the Mechanism of Light and Elevated Temperature Induced Degradation of p-type Silicon Solar Cells; PI: Sumit Agarwal; Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy
Investigations of Anion Exchange Polymer Interfacial Interactions; PI: Andrew Herring; Sponsor: Army Research Office
INFEWS/T3: Critical Nutrient Recovery and Reuse: N & P Recycling from Wastewaters as Struvite Fertilizer; PI: Andrew Herring; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Water and Nutrient Recycling: A Decision Tool and Synergistic Innovative Technology; PI: Andrew Herring; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
CdTe Core; PI: Colin Wolden Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Electrically detected magnetic resonance effects in correlated triplet pair systems PI: Meenakshi Singh, Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Probing the origins of Chirality Induced Spin Selectivity via transport measurements PI: Meenakshi Singh Sponsor: Department of Energy, Office of Science
Quantum Computing Clean Energy Systems; PI: Eliot Kapit; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Synthesis and Characterization of Perovskites for Optoelectronics PI: Eric Toberer; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
High temperature, high throughput thermoelectric material discovery; PI: Eric Toberer; Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy
Nanomanufacturing of Nanophononic Devices: Ultra-High ZT Thermoelectrics for Efficient Conversion of Waste Heat; PI: Eric Toberer; Sponsor: Regents of University of Colorado
REU: UG Integrating Computation; PI: Eric Toberer; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Investigation of optoelectronic properties in perovskite photovoltaics; PI: Eric Toberer; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Understanding & Controlling Aggregation Processes in Organic Light Emitting Diode Materials; PI: Jeramy Zimmerman; Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy
Expitaxial Growth of III-V solar cells on silicon substrates; PI: Jeramy Zimmerman; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Ground- and Excited-state Charge Transfer at Interfaces Between Perovskite-based Semiconductors and Other Low-Dimensional Semiconductors; PI:Jeramy Zimmerman; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Atom probe tomography of commercially relevant OLED structures; PI: Jeramy Zimmerman; Sponsor: Universal Display Corporation
Thermoelectric Effect Superconductor-Ferromagnet Hybrids; PI: Meenakshi Singh; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Magnetoresistance Effects in Correlated Triplet Pair Systems; PI: Meenakshi Singh; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Nitride materials and interfaces for radiation-hard integrated neutron detection PI: Prashun Gorai and Geoff Brennecka; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
End-to-End Optimization for Battery Materials and Molecules by Combining Graph Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning; PI: Prashun Gorai; Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy
CDS&E: Collaborative Research: Designing New Zintl Phases with Motif-based Deep Learning and Ab Initio Methods; PI: Prashun Gorai; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Electrochemistry: Triple Conducting Oxides for Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage; PI: Ryan O’Hayre; Sponsor: Army Research Office
Accelerated Discovery of Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production Materials via High-Throughput Computational and Experimental Methods; PI: Ryan O’Hayre; Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy
Lowering the cost of III-V growth and substrates; PI: Corinne Packard Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Calculations of wide band gap semiconductors; PI: Vladan Stevanovic; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Oxide Electronic Devices for Extreme Operating Environments; PI: Vladan Stevanovic; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Online Instructional Resources for Material Science Technology Education; PI: Cynthia Howell; Sponsor: Edmonds Community College
Strengthening Precollege Programs as a Mechanism to Promote Equitable Access to University Admissions and Persistence in STEM; PI: Cynthia Howell; Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh
Tetrahedral Nitride Multiferroics; PI: Prashun Gorai; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL
Department of Chemistry
Investigating Precision Control of local chemical and physical manipulation of 2D material properties; PI: Ryan Richards; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Metal Oxide Catalysis for Coupling biomass-derived ketones to fuel precursors; PI: Ryan Richards; Sponsor: National Renewable Energy Lab
Elucidating Surface Structure Contribution of Facets, Steps and Kinks in Electrocatalysis of the Oxygen Evolution and Reduction Reactions (SurFCat); PI: Ryan Richards; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mechanism for Improved Strength in Fast Pyrolysis Biochar Concrete; PI: Lori Tunstall; Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Biochar Blended Concrete–a Low Carbon, Renewable Alternative to OPC Concrete, PI: Lori Tunstall; Sponsor: Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade
Decarbonizing the cement and concrete industry through ex-situ CO2 mineralization and high-level clinker substitution with sustainably sourced biochar and mining waste, PI: Lori Tunstall; Sponsor: Colorado School of Mines, VP Research Office
Current Nexus Seed Funding projects:
FLASH ACTIVATION OF CONDUCTIVE OXIDE MATERIALS FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE OXYGEN EVOLVING ANODES Megan Holtz (Colorado School of Mines), Assistant Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, and Elliot Padgett (National Renewable Energy Lab), Researcher III-Chemistry, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
INFRASTRUCTURE PERCEPTION AND CONTROL (IPC): CREATING REAL-TIME DIGITAL TWIN OF TRAFFIC TO CREATE SAFE AND RELIABLE INTERSECTIONS Michael Wakin (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Rimple Sandhu (National Renewable Energy Lab), Staff Researcher, Computational Sciences
DEVELOPMENT OF BIOMASS WASTE ELECTROCATALYSTS FOR LOCALIZED GREEN H2 GENERATION AND SUSTAINABLE HYDROCARBON CHEMISTRY Nicholas Bedford (Colorado School of Mines) Research Professor of Chemistry, Alan Sellinger (Colorado School of Mines) Professor of Chemistry, Jack Ferrell (National Renewable Energy Lab) Research Engineer, Carbon Utilization and Susan Habas (National Renewable Energy Lab) Bioenergy Science and Technology
ENERGY-NEUTRAL GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TREATMENT OF PATHOGENS IN URBAN DROOL AND DRY WEATHER FLOWS John McCray (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Scott Struck (National Renewable Energy Lab), Water Systems Research Engineer
NOVEL METHODS FOR DECONSTRUCTING PLASTICS AND SUSTAINABLE PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT Amy Landis (Colorado School of Mines) Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Alberta Carpenter (National Renewable Energy Lab) Integrated Modeling & Economic Analysis Scientist
UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIOTECHNICAL ECOSYSTEMS OF ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, DEMONSTRATION, AND DEPLOYMENT Katie Johnson (Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Elizabeth Gill (National Renewable Energy Lab), Research Engineer, Wind Energy