{"id":3766,"date":"2022-06-08T14:21:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T19:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/?p=3766"},"modified":"2022-06-08T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T19:28:12","slug":"kidambi-chemical-and-biomolecular-engineer-wins-department-of-energy-early-career-research-funding-for-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/2022\/06\/kidambi-chemical-and-biomolecular-engineer-wins-department-of-energy-early-career-research-funding-for-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Kidambi, chemical and biomolecular engineer, wins Department of Energy Early Career Research funding for five years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Piran Kidambi<\/a>, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been selected to receive funding for research as part of the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s\u00a0Early Career Research Program<\/a>. The program is designed to bolster the nation\u2019s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career period, when many scientists conduct their most formative work.<\/p>\n

\"portrait
Piran Kidambi (Vanderbilt University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kidambi is among 83 scientists around the country selected for the program and will receive approximately $750,000 over five years. His proposal, \u201cUnderstanding Enhanced Isotope Sieving Through Defects in 2D Membranes\u201d aims to answer fundamental scientific questions about how to separate similar variants of the same elements\u2014isotopes\u2014by using nanomaterials.<\/p>\n

Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have equal numbers of protons and electrons, but different numbers of neutrons\u2014which changes the atomic mass but not the chemical properties of the atom. These variants are extremely useful in medical diagnostic and treatment, quantum information science, nuclear power and national security, among other areas.<\/p>\n

Kidambi\u2019s proposed project aims to use defects in 2D nanomaterials to enhance separation of isotopes. \u201cIsotopes are analogous to indistinguishable twins with very minor differences,\u201d Kidambi said. \u201cSeparating one isotope from another is inherently challenging, and conventional isotope separation processes are extremely energy intensive\u2014and are accompanied with adverse environmental effects. In this context, defects in 2D nanomaterials offer new and exciting possibilities for breakthrough advances.\u201d<\/p>\n

More broadly, Kidambi\u2019s research is focused on understanding the synthesis of nanomaterials for health care, energy, electronic and catalytic applications. The group\u2019s multidisciplinary work leverages collaboration with academic, national lab and industrial partners. The lab is\u00a0affiliated with\u202fthe\u202fVanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering<\/a>,\u202fthe\u202fInterdisciplinary Materials Science Program<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Data Science Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting talented researchers early in their career is key to fostering scientific creativity and ingenuity within the national research community,\u201d said DOE Office of Science Director Asmeret Asefaw Berhe. \u201cDedicating resources to these focused projects led by well-deserved investigators helps maintain and grow America\u2019s scientific skill set for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be eligible for this DOE award, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution, or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory who has received a Ph.D. within 10 years. Awardees were selected from a large pool of university- and national laboratory-based applicants based on peer review by outside scientific experts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Piran Kidambi, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been selected to receive funding for research as part of the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s\u00a0Early Career Research Program. The program is designed to bolster the nation\u2019s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career period, when many scientists conduct their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9492,"featured_media":2599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[273,55],"class_list":["post-3766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-doe-early-career-research-program","tag-piran-kidambi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3766"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3773,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions\/3773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vinsenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}