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news release:
Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH
Expands Efforts
Houston, TX, Jan 9:
The Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH),
internationally recognized for its multidisciplinary research and development of
high temperature superconductors (HTS) and related materials, has announced a
major reorganization and new national and international initiatives.
The center’s cutting-edge research is fueling innovative technologies with
applications in electricity transmission, power generation, medicine and
defense. Important TcSUH programs include discovery, understanding and
applications of materials that become superconductors at new record high
temperatures, production of pure oxygen for medical and industrial applications,
lowering the operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells for clean energy,
and development of nano materials and technologies.
Allan J. Jacobson, Robert A. Welch Chair of Science, professor of chemistry and
founding director of the UH Center for Materials Chemistry was appointed as
TcSUH director by UH President Jay Gogue. Paul C.W. Chu serves as TcSUH’s
executive director and chief science advisor without salary and continues as the
T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science and professor of physics, leading HTS and
advanced materials research programs at UH while also serving as president of
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Chu’s unique combination of
positions has afforded TcSUH an outstanding opportunity to strengthen its
international collaborations to advance HTS and related materials science.
Wei-Kan Chu, Robert A. Welch Professor of Physics, who is internationally
recognized for his pioneering ion beam research, serves as research director.
Jacobson, pleased at the realignment of the TcSUH mission and research focus,
said, “We have strengthened our primary commitment to fundamental and applied
superconductivity research while also taking advantage of the expertise and
synergy between our HTS researchers and strong UH research programs in
nanomaterials and energy materials.”
Recent TcSUH collaborations established with DOE Superconductivity Partnership
Initiative industrial members in the energy sector and with the Strategic
Partnership for Research in NanoTechnology (SPRING), an alliance of Texas
universities, create an outstanding opportunity for the further development of
materials research at UH, Paul Chu said.
The center encompasses three major research divisions. As TcSUH’s largest core
program, the Superconductivity and Related Materials division explores the
fundamental aspects of HTS and related materials, focusing its applied programs
in biomedical technologies, HTS wire and coated conductor characterization and
development, and devices for energy, communications, transportation, space and
defense.
The Energy Materials and Applications division conducts collaborative research
in the area of fuel cells, ion transport membranes, and energy transmission and
storage for energy production, distribution and utilization, where there is
strong overlap with the HTS coated conductor program.
The Nanoscale Materials and Applications division has programs in nanomagnetics,
inorganic nanomaterials, bionano materials, and organic films and nanocomposites.
Each program has strong alliances with U.S. and international universities,
industrial partners and medical institutions. A new Seed Projects Initiative
provides initial support for innovative projects to capture new developments in
science and engineering, and 11 additional UH faculty members from chemistry,
physics and engineering were funded for FY06.
All TcSUH research divisions are supported by the Materials Characterization
Facilities that include a new world-class scanning tunneling microscopy facility
for studies of HTS and related materials that will officially open this summer.
A new initiative, the Houston International Materials Forum (HIMF), is being
established by Paul Chu with initial private funding from the S.S. Chern
Foundation to support an environment for the world’s brightest minds to
brainstorm selected crucial issues of current materials. It is anticipated that
HIMF will become one of the world’s leading venues for intellectual inquiry and
exchange in HTS and complex materials.
Training the next generation of scientists and engineers is central to TcSUH’s
mission. The center’s extensive education and outreach activities support
science education at the graduate, undergraduate, secondary and elementary
school levels through programs that provide opportunities for student research,
disseminate current superconductivity and complex materials research and
applications, encourage students to pursue science and engineering careers, and
enhance elementary and secondary science teacher professional development.
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