Check out our latest preprint on temperature-dependent radiative property measurements for ceramic powders, with applications as heat-transfer and storage media in concentrated solar power plants. 

Super thrilled and really grateful to receive the NSF CAREER Award for understanding radiative transport in flowing and reactive participating media. Looking forward to exciting research and educational outcomes from this 5-year project. Huge shout out to support from my research team, financial and administrative staff at UM, especially Diane Brouwer (ME) and Kellie Buss (ORSP), and my family members. 

Very excited to have our project proposal to the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office be selected and recommended for funding.  We will focus on measuring the high-temperature optical properties of materials used in solar thermal power applications and creating a publicly accessible database with the measured properties. Also, looking forward to exciting collaborations with Dr. Sean Lubner and Dr. Vassilia Zorba on this project. Read more about this project here and here. 

​In the photo, Mike prepares samples for characterizing optical properties using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Photo credits: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering

We celebrated the end of a good year for TREE Lab members by kicking back with:

1. Our annual holiday cookie exchange which featured lots of delicious treats made by TREE-Lab members; thanks Luisa for including our lab logo on your lemon cookies
2. Inspired by Mike's idea, we made a "tree" for our lab powered by the sun. The tree comprises of all the students' names and their achievements in the form of papers, talks, qualifying exams, etc. as apples and flowers. Was such a fun hands-on, team activity for all of us during a group meeting :)
3. We got together at Maize in Ypsilanti, Michigan and enjoyed a nice group dinner.

Here's to a healthy, happy, and a fun 2022!

Rohini was invited to give the departmental seminar at her alma mater -- University of Minnesota, Mechanical Engineering Department. Was so exciting and recharging to go back to warm and friendly faces, and also meet new faculty in the department. Nice to learn about the great spread of ongoing research activities in the department. Thanks Jane (my PhD advisor) for inviting and hosting me, and continuing to be my mentor. Picture from dinner at  Tea house (L-R): Profs. Sue Mantell (Department Chair) and Jane Davidson

Our newest paper on quantifying the influences of spatial distributions of particles on radiative transport is now published in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. Implications of this fundamental work will form a useful foundation for developing radiative transport models for multiphase flows with solid particles for concentrated solar applications. 

Rohini's proposal  to the Doctoral New Investigator award by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF) was recently  awarded. We are so happy and grateful for this selection. 

We enjoyed a fun get-together as a group with outdoor lunch and "swinging" on campus. Thanks to Theo Rulko, for great research work through the summer, we look forward to having him back.  Thanks Luisa Barrera for bringing us yummy cupcakes. And, also, welcome Katherine Giammalvo (Kate) to our group. 

Rohini was invited to give a lecture on the topic of mass transport modeling fundamentals in electrochemical systems at the Telluride Summer School on Electrochemical Energy Storage (Virtual). Thanks to the organizers -- Veronica Augustyn, Don Siegel, and Keith Stevenson for the kind invite. I enjoyed the experience of participating in this event and hope to see this school being offered in the future as well.