John Kim, a PhD student in U-M Mechanical Engineering, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program as one of 80 outstanding students.
SCGSR awardees work on research projects of significant importance to the Office of Science’s mission to address societal challenges at national and international scales. Awardees are recognized as “the future science and innovation leaders of this country.”
The SCGSR Program will provide each of its outstanding graduate students with supplemental funds to conduct part of their thesis research at a host DOE laboratory in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist. Through world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities and resources at DOE national laboratories, SCGSR prepares graduate students to enter jobs of critical importance to the DOE mission and to secure the U.S. position at the forefront of discovery and innovation.
John Kim works on “the chemical kinetics of siloxane using a laser absorption system. Siloxane is known to have a big impact on the ignition properties of landfill gas in advanced combustion systems.”
For his SCGSR Program application, Kim wrote a proposal on identifying and quantifying the elementary reactions that are important during pyrolysis of iso-propanol. He will explore the dominant reaction pathway during pyrolysis of Iso-propanol using a high-tech shock tube at Argonne National Laboratory.
Kim told us, “I am greatly happy to receive this Office of Science Graduate Student Research fellowship. I will have a valuable opportunity for broadening the insight of my knowledge through various experiments. I hope this experience will make me an enthusiastic engineer for a better future.”
At UM-ME, John Kim works with and is advised by Margaret Wooldridge, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Walter J. Weber, Jr. Professor of Sustainable Energy, Environmental, and Earth Systems Engineering, in the Wooldridge Combustion Laboratory.
Congratulations, John!
A list of the 80 awardees, their institutions, host DOE laboratory/facility, and priority research areas of the projects can be found at https://science.osti.gov/WDTS/SCGSR/SCGSR-Awards.