2020 Summer Fellows
IES is proud to sponsor two outstanding graduate students for the 2020 IES Summer Fellowship! TRIF Funds made it possible to award two students so they may enhance their academic experience with field work and/or collaborations with research labs. Travel restrictions due to COVID-19 challenged their original plans that involved travel, however, both awardees have a designed a means to conduct preliminary "remote" work until travel restrictions are lifted. Please meet our IES 2020 Summer Fellows:
Joohyung Park, PhD Candidate
Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry
Research site: NanoESCA lab, University of Bristol, UK
Research Topic: Benchmarking Instrumentation of The NanoESCA for The University of Arizona
Summer Project: Understanding Operational Principle and Developing of Data Analysis Package for a New Instrument at The University of Arizona: NanoESCA
Hi! I'm Joohyung Park. I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. I received my B.S. in Chemistry and Physics at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, received a M.S. in Inorganic Chemistry at the same institute. As of spring 2020, I'm finishing my second-year study as a physical chemistry Ph.D. student under the guidance of Dr. Monti. My research project involves the spectroscopic study of 2D materials. As for the fellowship, I plan to visit the University of Bristol to learn instrumentation and operation of the NanoESCA, an instrument being introduced first in the United States at the University of Arizona. My summer project involves preliminary studies of the NanoESCA and developing a data analysis package for future NanoESCA users in Arizona. Out of the work, I enjoy stargazing and astrophotography with my 8" Newtonian telescope, spending a whole night awake.
JoRee LaFrance, PhD Candidate
Department: Department of Environmental Science
Research Site: Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee, Montana
Research Topic: Contaminant behavior in the Indigenous Food, Energy, Water Security and Sovereignty (Indige-FEWSS) nexus in the Little Bighorn River watershed.
JoRee LaFrance (she/her) comes from the Crow Reservation located in southeastern Montana and is Apsáalooke (Crow). Her Apsáalooke name is Iichiinmaaáatchilash – Fortunate with Horses and she comes from the Greasy Mouth clan and is a child of Ties in the Bundle clan. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science and holds a bachelor's in Earth Sciences and Native American Studies from Dartmouth College. JoRee’s PhD research aims to understand the contaminant behavior in the Indigenous Food, Energy, Water Security and Sovereignty (Indige-FEWSS) nexus in the Little Bighorn River watershed. For the IES Summer Fellowship, Ms. LaFrance will work on identifying the various components to begin contexualizing the Indige-FEWSS nexus specific to Apsáalooke people living on the Crow Reservation. This will be done through surveys and interviews to cover all grounds in food production/consumption, energy production/consumption, water security and rights, and Crow tribal sovereignty.
2019 Summer Fellows
The Institute for Energy Solutions, with the help of TRIF funds, sponsored five ($5,000) 2019 Summer Fellowship awards for graduate students to work in (United States) research laboratories on renewable energy-water related research. The fellowship allows the students to expand their current research and build upon their existing academic leadership. Masters and PhD Candidates studying renewable energy science, technology, economics, business, policy or other related research that sits at the energy-water nexus were encouraged to apply. Awarded Fellows presented their experiences and the results of their summer research at the IES Fellowship Symposium in the Fall and annual Arizona Student Energy Conference (AzSEC) at Biosphere 2, November 2019.
Zhiting Chen, PhD Candidate
Department: Materials Science & Engineering
Research Site: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, CA
Research Topic: Organic Semiconductor Photoelectrodes for Energy Storage and Water Purification
Truman Combs, Masters Student
Department: Biosystems Engineering
Research Site: Bridgestone Americas, Eloy, AZ
Research Topic: Estimating above-ground biomass of guayule using UAV-derived SfM photogrammetry
Angel Garlant, PhD Candidate
Department: Physics
Research Site: Brookhaven National Laboratory - Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Upton, NY
Research Topic: Quantum Wells as a New Approach to Controlling Electronic Performance at Organic Semiconductor and Metal Interfaces.
Daniel Zuniga Vazquez, PhD Candidate
Department: Systems & Industrial Engineering
Research Site: Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL
Research Topic: Multilevel Optimization for Reliable Planning of Interdependent Water and Energy Systems with Renewable Resources.
Michael Anderson, PhD Candidate
Department: Materials Science & Engineering
Research Site: National Renewable Energy Lab, Golden, CO
Research Topic: "Stability and reliability of printable semiconductor materials"