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Nanomaterials expert Linda Schadler has been named the Russell Sage Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. An endowed professorship is among the highest honors bestowed on a Rensselaer faculty member.

Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method for creating advanced nanomaterials that could lead to highly efficient refrigerators and cooling systems requiring no refrigerants and no moving parts. The key ingredients for this innovation are a dash of nanoscale sulfur and a normal, everyday microwave oven.

 While others have used "Pulsed laser ablation in liquid" to produce nanoparticles for ten years, researchers at Rensselaer found for the first time that this approach could lead to more interesting structures.  It was surprising to find hollow spheres and nanowires in the products fabricated by pulsed laser ablation of an aluminum target immersed in liquid.

Novel nanoscale alumina particle filled epoxy nanocomposites were designed and developed for potential use in electrical machine insulation. One of the potential advantages of nanoparticle filled thermosets is the unique combination of mechanical properties that can be obtained.

A novel type of electrode developed by graduate student Michael Gasda, Prof. Glenn Eisman, and Prof. Daniel Gall offers new promise for high efficiency fuel cells with low materials cost.  Aligned nanorods of carbon grown by glancing angle physical vapor deposition are coated with platinum catalyst in a scalable, high-throughput process.

Four engineering students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute spent their summer in Spain researching advanced materials at the Madrid Microelectronics Institute (IMM). The eight-week fellowship, funded by the National Science Foundation through an International Research Experiences for Students grant, offered the students a chance to perform leading-edge research while living, working, and learning in an international, multicultural environment.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to harvest energy from flowing water. This discovery aims to hasten the creation of self-powered microsensors for more accurate and cost-efficient oil exploration.

Led by Rensselaer Professor Nikhil Koratkar, the researchers investigated how the flow of water over surfaces coated with the nanomaterial graphene could generate small amounts of electricity. The research team demonstrated the creation of 85 nanowatts of power from a sheet of graphene measuring .03 millimeters by .015 millimeters.

The School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute invites applications or nominations for an Endowed Chair Professorship in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.    The Department has broad interests and world-class expertise in glasses, nanostructured and bio materials, electronic materials, metals, polymers and their composites, and computational materials science.