CAER News Archive: May 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Another year of the CAER-Russell Cave Elementary 'Scientists in the Classroom' program is complete. The class visited CAER on Monday, May 19th, where they participated in liquid nitrogen, fluidized bed, carbon material, and fly ash experiments. This year, for the first time, the students worked on a long-term project with researchers where they created, and periodically measured, the strength of concrete with -- and without -- fly ash. In addition to learning about coal combustion by-products, this project included graphing and mathematical components.
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
An excerpt from the January/March 2008 issue of "SasolNews" publication -- Burt Davis speaks at Sasol's Golden Anniversary:
"It was then Professor Burt Davis's turn to captivate the room. Hailing from the University of Kentucky, Prof. Davis is an international Fischer-Tropsch expert and associate director of the Center for Applied Energy Research at the University of Kentucky. The prof transported everybody into a new era with his vision for the future Sasol R&D."
(from left): Ben Hutcherson, Daniel Grubb, Daniel SchlipfThree Georgetown College students will be working in the Biofuels Group this summer. Ben and Daniel Schlipf area both chemistry majors. While Daniel Grubb will soon transfer into UK's College of Engineering.
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Yesterday in Somerset, Kentucky U.S. Representative Hal Rogers announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute for Hometown Security would fund security solutions to help protect the country from disasters. Of the 15 projects awarded to UK, U of L, and WKU, the CAER was the recipient of three. They are:
-Reducing the Explosive Potential of Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer (Darrell Taulbee, PI) $836K
-Carbon Foam-Based Protection Systems (Rodney Andrews, PI) $837K
-Rapidly Deployable System for the Structural Stabilization of Shock Damaged Structures (Tom Robl, PI)$991K
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
Friday, May 9, 2008
Darrell Taulbee (in hard hat) with Jeff Worley, of OdysseyDarrell Taulbee's work to make the U.S. a safer place will be highlighted in the upcoming issue of Odyssey Magazine (the UK research sector's award-winning publication that features exception and interesting research). Darrell has been researching a method of coating potential volatile ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make bombs, with coal ash to lessen the impact of potential explosions. One of Odyssey's writers and a photographer came to CAER recently for a photoshoot of Taulbee.
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
Jim Hower (CAER) and Maria Mastalerz (Indiana Geological Survey) wrote an article on coal petrology for SCIRUS's Topic Pages, a free wiki-like internet service that publishes authoritative topic summaries written by scientific experts. This new form of educational outreach facilitates knowledge sharing and provides the latest and most relevant journal and web results.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The CAER staff would like to congratulate several of our students who are graduating this spring:
- Victor Kunadian (Mechanical Engineering) and Jen O'Keefe (Earth & Environmental Sciences) will receive their PhDs.
- Brad Toon (Mechanical Engineering) will receive his Masters Degree
- Allison Richardson (Earth & Environmental Sciences) will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.Some of these students have spent years with us, conducting research while working on their degrees. We are proud of them all.
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
A group from E-ON U.S., as well as their International Research Board, met at the CAER in April for presentations and a tour of appropriate research areas.Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
