In conjunction with Earth Day on Sat., April 22, SCALACS hosted two FREE virtual seminars funded by Science Café Grant from LSAC. We were honored to be able to hear from our distinguished speakers on Dr. Salmaan Baxamusa and Prof. Sri R. Narayan. Thank you to all who attended.
Chemistry, Materials and Fusion Ignition Breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility
April 22 • 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Presented by:
Dr. Salmaan Baxamusa
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Dr. Salmaan Baxamusa is the Deputy Program Manager for Target Fabrication at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, helping lead a team that fabricates the complex assemblies used for laser nuclear fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility. He is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Enabling the Global Energy Transition with Sustainable Electrochemical Processes
April 22 • 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Presented by:
Prof. Sri R. Narayan
Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California
Prof. Sri Narayan pioneered the development of a novel methanol fuel cell technology that led to the commercialization of the first high-energy portable fuel cells and led the Electrochemical Technologies Group to develop and launch the first lithium-ion batteries to power the rovers for the surface of Mars. He has been a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California
(USC) for the last 13 years and also the Co-Scientific Director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. At USC, Prof. Narayan and his research group have been tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time, namely, inventing inexpensive and robust systems to store electrical energy from solar and wind generation systems. Prof. Narayan has over 100 journal publications in the field of batteries and fuel cells.
These two seminars are coordinated by:
Professor G. K. Surya Prakash
Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Department of Chemistry,
University of Southern California
Professor Surya Prakash was born in 1953 in Bangalore, India. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) from the Bangalore University and a M.Sc. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He obtained his Ph. D. degree under the tutelage of late Professor Olah (1994 Nobel Laureate) at USC in 1978. He joined the USC faculty in 1981 and is now a Professor and Director holding the Olah Nobel Laureate Chair at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. His research encompasses superacid, hydrocarbon, synthetic organic, organosilicon, electro- and organofluorine chemistry, with an emphasis on energy storage, greenhouse gas abatement and catalysis. He is a prolific author with 835 publications, 117 patents and 14 books. He has received four ACS Awards: the 2004 Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, the 2006 George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry, the 2006 Richard C. Tolman Award and the 2018 Late Career Cope Scholar Award. He has shared with the late Professor Olah, the inaugural $1 Million the 2013 Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation by Israel. In 2015, he won the Henri Moissan International Prize for excellence in Fluorine Chemistry. He is an elected Fellow of many prestigious academies.