NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Vanderbilt chemist Chuck Lukehart has received a
$50,000 grant from Honda Corporation to develop new breakthroughs in
fuel cell technology. Lukehart was one of five researchers selected
this year by Honda to receive its annual Honda Initiation Grant.
Lukehart will accept the grant at the 2004 Honda Initiation Grant
Symposium Nov. 19 in Hollywood, Calif.
Lukehart is the only chemist to receive a Honda grant this year and
the first Vanderbilt recipient. The grant is designed to facilitate
collaborative research between Honda technical staff and university
researchers with the goal of developing long-term collaborations.
"I am both pleased and honored to be selected as a recipient of a
2004 Honda Initiation Grant Award. With funds provided by this award,
my research group will collaborate with Honda research staff to achieve
breakthrough enhancements in fuel cell technology," Lukehart said. "In
this way, advances in materials synthesis realized within an academic
laboratory can couple with the fuel cell fabrication and testing
expertise of industrial laboratories to solve real problems that affect
all of us. I hope that this award leads to a long-term collaboration
between my group and the research laboratories of Honda Corporation."
Lukehart’s research focuses on finding new strategies to prepare
nanomaterials that exhibit desired chemical reactivity or enhanced
physical properties. The project recognized by the Honda award involves
the discovery and development of new methods for preparing metal
nanocrystals that can be used as electrochemical catalysts for
direct-methanol or hydrogen fuel cells. His other current projects
include synthesizing carbon nanofibers in a manner that enables them to
convert heat directly into electrical current and the synthesis of a
type of carbon nanofibers that can be used as electrochemical sensors
to detect certain chemical and biological agents.
Lukehart is a member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale
Science and Research, an initiative involving researchers from multiple
Vanderbilt departments and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
interested in nanoscience and nanoengineering. "Nanoscale" describes
objects that measure approximately a millionth of a millimeter, or
roughly 1/100,000th the size of a human hair.
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Media contact: Melanie Catania, (615) 322-NEWS
Melanie.catania@vanderbilt.edu