Jifa Tian, an assistant professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, received a $5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Expanding Capacity in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) grant designed to develop research and education capacities in this emerging field at UW through a collaboration with Purdue University, where QISE research and education programs are already well established.

Keep reading to learn more here.

The University of Wyoming Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management has received full accreditation for its Construction Management Program from the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE).

Discover more here.

Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the 2022 Wyoming Blockchain Stampede will be held Sept. 19-23 at the University of Wyoming Conference Center in Laramie.

Find out more about the event here.

Two University of Wyoming researchers will receive Thomas Jefferson Fund grants to collaborate with French scientists on separate research projects that assess water storage capacity in mountain watersheds and enhance crop production worldwide to ensure future food security.

Learn more about the research here.

The University of Wyoming has cut the ribbon on the Tom A. Thorson Geology Field Camp, a venerable century-long tradition made new by a $1 million gift from family in honor of Tom Thorson, president of the Wyoming company Black Hills Bentonite LLC.

Read more about this exciting new endowment here.

A team of University of Wyoming students was the first from Wyoming to be selected and participate in NASA’s 2022 Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (NExT) engineering design challenge.

Discover more about this out of world design challenge here.

University of Wyoming geology Professor and National Geographic Explorer Ken Sims has published a new book on the application of isotopes to understanding earth system processes.

Learn more about the book here.

Laura Vietti and two University of Wyoming researchers recently accompanied some UW students to three fossil fish quarries near Kemmerer. Their mission: to gather ash samples in the fossil fish layers to discover how quickly the fossil lake filled up millions of years ago.

Keep reading to learn more about their work here.

Department of Chemistry Professor Jing Zhou has received two NSF grants, “Collaborative Research: Elucidation of the Role of Atomic Structures of CeO₂(111) on the Nucleation and Growth of Metal Clusters through in situ STM and Theory”, for $263,799 that will run for the next three years. The second NSF grant, “Surface Science Studies of Ni-based Bimetallic Particles Supported on CeO₂(111) for Dry Reforming of Methane”, is for $416,976, and will also run for threes years. These projects focus on the design of oxide-supported metal catalysts, the understanding of the nucleation and growth mechanism, the characterization of physical properties and chemical behavior for their applications in catalysis. Through collaboration, the students involved in the research will be working at the intersection of nanoscience, chemistry, materials science, and computational modeling.

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Department of Petroleum Engineering Associate Professor Morteza Dejam has recently published an article entitled, “Dispersion tensor in stratified porous media” in the prestigious American Physical Society (APS) Physical Review E, which addresses computational physics in the area of fluid dynamics in porous media. Learn more about this research here.

Roy & Caryl Cline Chair of Engineering, Environment and Natural Resources Associate Professor Haibo Zhai shares that he had a joint press release with Carnegie Mellon University colleagues on EurekAlert, about a new carbon capture study published in Environmental Science & Technology. This study reveals that existing fossil-fuel capacity can play a significant role in reaching net-zero with both current and modified federal “Section 45Q" tax incentives for carbon capture and storage (CCS). 

In addition, as the sole PI, Zhai's proposal titled, "Systems Analysis for Advancing Coal/Waste Coal-Biomass Co-Firing Power Plants with Deep Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage toward Net-Zero Emissions" has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. The project will span two years for a total cost of about $400k.

Also, Zhai's proposal is one of the winners for the School of Energy Resources’ the request for proposals Hydrogen: Make, Move, Use or Store. The proposal is titled, "Technological Learning and Resources Required for Large-Scale Blue Hydrogen Production toward Energy Earthshot Target". The project will span 15 months for a total cost of $100k. Zhai is the sole PI of this project. 

Ballooning Specialist, Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium and Department of Physics & Astronomy Postdoctoral Research Associate Philip Bergmaier shares that in late July, the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium welcomed a small group of educators to campus for the first high-altitude balloon workshop in more than a decade.

Spanning two and a half days, the workshop gave attendees an in-depth look into the UW balloon program. The workshop covered everything from the history of the program to more practical information about how to actually conduct balloon flights and how high-altitude ballooning can be implemented in the K-12 classroom.

Attendees also had the opportunity to work in teams to build their own balloon payloads. To highlight the workshop, the group successfully flew a high-altitude balloon carrying their payloads into the stratosphere.

Featured on the righthand side are two photos from the workshop.

The University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources (SER) has announced the selected projects that will be funded under the “Hydrogen: Make, Move, Use or Store” initiative.

To learn more about the initiative and to see all of the UW College of Engineering and Physical Sciences awardees keep reading here.