Career in Brookhaven National Laboratory

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Career in Brookhaven National Laboratory

• Ping Liu

Department of Chemistry and Center for Functional
Nanomaterials Brookhaven National Laboratory
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Visualization of scientist
Mad
Careful
Great
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Woman scientist?

• May not personally meet many women scientists
• May assume that a woman scientist is just a
  teacher or a lecturer or a secretary
• Dont see much in media which promotes women
  as scientists
• Dont see much in history which promotes
  women as scientists

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Some troubling statistics

• Women make up less than 21 of Science and
  Engineering Faculty in 4-year colleges and
  Universities (note many of these are NOT in
  tenure-track faculty positions!)
• Women in minority groups make up only about 2
  of Science and Engineering Faculty in 4-year
  colleges and Universities

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My background

• The youngest child in family of three kids
• Was the odd duck who loved reading and science
• Chose science because it was the only subject
  that endlessly fascinated meI never got bored or
  lost interest in it!
• Got my B.S. degree (1994) in Material Science
  Engineering at Jilin University, China
• Got M.S. (1997) and Ph.D degrees (2000) in
  Condensed Matter Physics at Jilin University
• Worked as assistant professor at Technical
  University of Denmark (2000-2002)
• Worked as research associate at Brookhaven
  National Laboratory (2002-2005)
• Got promoted to an assistant scientist
  (2005-present)

Jilin University
Technical University of Denmark
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Brookhaven National Laboratory(BNL)
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Chemistry department in BNL
Including women staff members (16)
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My research interest Catalysis

• Catalysis is the acceleration (increase in
  rate) of a chemical reaction by means of a
  substance, called a catalyst, that is itself not
  consumed by the overall reaction.
• 
  
  -Wikipedia

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Catalysis important part of our life
Energy
Food
Fuels
Clothes
Makeup
Enzyme
Material fabrication
Air purifier
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My research interests

• Establishing a molecular level understanding of
  catalysis and developing, in strong combination
  with experiments, new catalysts using theoretical
  methods
• Specific themes are
• (i) the cleaning of conventional
  oil-derived fuels hydrodesulfurization,
  hydrodenitrogenation
• (ii) the production, conversion and use of
  non-conventional fuels such as hydrogen and
  ethanol steaming reforming of hydrocarbons,
  water-gas-shift reactions, electrochemical
  reactions in fuel cells

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Fuel cell
Fuel cells can play a leading role in meeting
national goals of clean air, climate protection
and energy security. ? No unhealthy air
pollution emissions that are generated by burning
gasoline in cars or burning coal and other fossil
fuels in power plants ? High power density
? Quiet operation
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Fuel cell applications
Transportation
Stationary
Portable
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Challenges in fuel cells

• High costs (catalysts and membrane) the biggest
  hurdle for fuel cells
• Fuel cells cost about 4,500 per
  kilowatt
• Diesel generator cost 800 to 1,500 per
  kilowatt
• Natural gas turbine cost 400 per
  kilowatt or even less
• Inadequate efficiency of energy conversion
• Early technology risks
• Reliability and durability.
• To bring down the cost of fuel cells and improve
  the efficiency, less expensive and more efficient
  catalysts and membrane materials are needed!

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Theoretical screening for anode catalysts
- Pt alloys with low Pt
loading and high activity


0.18
High activity

0.15

0.12
Calculated activity

Pt
0.09
M
PtRu

0.06
Ru

0.03
Pt
Low activity

0.00
Pure

Fe

Co

Rh

Ir

Ni

Pd

Pt

Cu

Ag

Au

Sn


Pt

M

Liu, et al., US patent No. 6,663,998.
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Experimental screening for anode catalysts
Combinatorial high throughput screening
Electrocatalyst Library
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Comparison between theoretical and experimental
screening for anode catalysts
The theoretical method is able to provide an
economic, understandable, efficient way for the
development of functional materials.
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Whats a career in national laboratory?

• Advantages
• You direct and take full time on your own
  research
• Salary is slightly higher than that offered by
  universities
• You get to train others in areas of research
  in the laboratory
• Labs have clear criteria for promotion and
  tenure
• Disadvantages
• Money for research need to get money for
  your research or you will be let go
• You lose the teaching opportunity

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How do you know if science is right for you?

• Try it out!! You can get some real laboratory
  experience!
• Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship
  (SULI) at BNL http//www.bnl.gov/education/progra
  ms/suli.asp
• Volunteer to work and open house in the lab
  over the summer

E-mail pingliu3_at_bnl.gov
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