Seminar

Abstract:  In this talk, a recent University of Waterloo PhD graduate will discuss the transition from graduate student to assistant professor.  Topics will include the ingredients of a good PhD project, structuring your future research plans, setting reasonable expectations, the joys and burdens of teaching, the paradoxical nature of hiring the best lab rats (PhDs) to become rat trainers (Professors), and generally how to begin ‘thinking like a professor’.  By way of illustration he will discuss his own experience in the context of his research on ‘engineered’ porous mater

ABSTRACT: There is considerable interest in the use of micro-scale processing (MSP) techniques for process development and optimization.  The advantages of developing miniaturized versions of upstream and downstream unit operations that are scalable to actual production conditions are considerable.  First, it reduces the material costs associated with running a large number of lab-scale or full-scale trials.  Second, it accommodates a parallel approach for experimental testing, instead of the more traditional sequential approach, and thus is ideally suited for high-throughp

ABSTRACT:  Typical catalyst layers (CL) employed in PEM fuel cells are composed of a carbon supported Pt catalyst bound together with an ionomer, most often Nafion. Both the carbon support and ionomer play a crucial role in optimizing the catalyst utilization by proving electronic and ionic conductive pathways, respectively, without hindering gas transport. Upon fuel cell operation, the catalyst layer can degrade by one of 3 primary pathways:

ABSTRACT: Hydrogels have been widely applied in medicine for applications including controlled release drug delivery, tissue engineering, wound healing, and ocular devices.  Hydrogels based on “smart” materials that reversibly swell and deswell according to their environment offer additional advantages in terms of providing switchable physical and biological properties under relevant in vivo conditions.   However, conventional synthetic “smart” hydrogels suffer from significant limitations in medical applications in terms of their difficulty to non-invasively admin

"Improving Supercapacitor Performance by Functionalization and Interfacial Assembly of Graphene"

Abstract