Newswise — Uwe Burghaus, assistant professor of chemistry and molecular biology at North Dakota State University, Fargo, has received a $426,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.
The award will support Burghaus' research to characterize the absorption dynamics of small molecules (carbon monoxide, dioxide and oxygen) on copper and gold model array catalysts, which are pertinent for the petroleum industry and the cleaning of exhaust pollution. With molecular beam scattering, the research will clarify the catalytic activity and particle size, as well as support effects, in the carbon monoxide oxidation reaction mechanism. According to Burghaus, the reaction is one of the most important prototypes of biomolecular surface reactions.
Burghaus' educational plans include the development of a hands-on course that will be taught at an American Indian community college, as well as developing the physical chemistry laboratory course to include a cutting edge research topic in nanoscience.
Some of the experiments will be conducted as part of a physical chemistry laboratory class providing an introduction about nanoscience and kinetics to the students. A related off-campus, hands-on class also will be taught at American Indian community colleges as part of the Sunday Academy, a NATURE program of the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research which promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.
Burghaus is the 11th young faculty member at NDSU to receive the prestigious National Science Foundation's CAREER award. The National Science Foundation's CAREER awardees at NDSU over the past 10 years have received more than $4.2 million in grants to conduct research in chemistry, civil and electrical engineering, coatings and polymeric materials. The National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Program recognizes and supports the early career development of faculty who show remarkable potential to become academic leaders. CAREER awardees are selected on the basis of creative, integrative and effective research and education development plans.
For more information: http://www.ndsu.edu/chemistry/people/faculty/burghaus.html.
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