Graduate Student Yongjin Lee Receives Electrochemical Society Fellowship
Graduate student Yongjin Lee has received a Joseph W. Richards Summer Fellowship from The Electrochemical Society (ECS). Lee is one of only five researchers selected worldwide for this prestigious award.
Lee works in the area of renewable energy technologies under Professor Gyeong Hwang. He develops and utilizes computational tools to test and identify high-performance thermoelectric (TE) materials. TE energy conversion is a leading technology for turning waste heat, from things like intense industrial processes or automobile exhaust streams, into electrical energy. TE devices can be used for a variety of energy applications such as power sources for satellites and space probes and converting solar heat into energy.
“Yongjin’s work is really remarkable and provides an important hint on how to modify Si-based materials for high-performance thermoelectric devices,” Professor Gyeong Hwang said.
The $5,000 Fellowship will support Lee’s summer project focusing on exploring Si-based nanocomposites as potential high-efficiency, next-generation TE materials. Lee received a B.S. and M.S. in chemical and biological engineering from Seoul National University in South Korea before joining the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program in 2009. He will submit a written report at the end of his summer project for publication in the December 2013 issue of Interface, the ECS’s quarterly magazine.
Tags: awards, chemical engineering, fellowships, high-performance thermoelectric (TE) materials, Joseph W. Richards Summer Fellowship, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, renewable energy technologies, research, Si-based materials, TE energy conversion, TE materials, thermoelectric materials, University of Texas, UT, UT Austin