Clemson researcher teams up internationally with Marie Curie Fellowship

CLEMSON –– Clemson chemical engineering professor Mark C. Thies has received a Marie Curie Fellowship for $142,000 to develop molecular models for advanced carbon materials that have the potential to be used in strong yet lightweight transportation vehicles, wind turbines, and more energy-efficient aircraft. Thies was one of 22 international researchers to be selected for the award by the European Union. These fellowships are designed to encourage collaboration between European and internationally recognized researchers.

The award has enabled Thies to work with Doros Theodorou of the National Technical University of Athens in Greece.

“The complexity of today’s research problems requires not only interdisciplinary but even international teams such as the one we are now forming,” said Thies. “By combining our expertise in synthesis and characterization with Doros’s internationally recognized capabilities in modeling, we aim to molecularly design the next class of advanced carbon materials.”

The fellowship will support the team’s collaboration for the next two years.

The research of Thies and his graduate students at Clemson, currently funded by both the Air Force and the American Chemical Society, has focused on the synthesis of carbonaceous pitches of novel composition. Such pitches can serve as unique precursors (i.e., starting materials) for high-performance carbon fibers and carbon-carbon composites.

DOE funds Clemson University clean energy research

CLEMSON — Clemson University associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering David Bruce will participate in a multi-university Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) funded with $12.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Center for Atomic-Level Catalyst Design (CALCD) is focused on the development of new catalysts for the production of clean fuels and chemicals from renewable sources.

“The scientific research efforts of CALCD, combined with those of 45 other new EFRCs, are focused on the development of lower-cost renewable fuels that can be produced in the U.S.,” said Bruce. “The ultimate goal is to develop new environmentally friendly reaction processes that will help to decrease the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.”

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