News
- Nick Corak presents poster at 2024 Critical Zone Network All-Hands Meeting
The Critical Zone Network is an NSF-funded program geared at gaining an interdisciplinary understanding of the Earth’s surface. Nick and the team at the Lowman Environmental Dynamics Lab are part of the Dynamic Water Thematic Cluster through the ORE-CZ NSF grant. Nick presented his poster titled “Unraveling plant responses to flash drought” at the 2024 Critical Zone Network All-Hands Meeting.
- Nick Corak wins NC Space Grant Award
Congratulations to Nick Corak! Nick is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Physics working in the Lowman Environmental Dynamics Lab. He recently won a North Carolina Space Grant for his research project titled Disentangling Burn Severity and Vegetation Regrowth Dynamics Following Prescribed Fire Across North Carolina. This is a one year award that provides $10,000 in academic and research support.
Nick Corak Corak’s research project studies the effects of fire on vegetation regrowth dynamics across a gradient of North Carolina ecosystems and climates through a combination of ground observations and NASA satellite remote sensing data. This work will add to scientific literature on how fire impacts vegetation health, being the first of its kind to use ground observations to validate remotely-sensed leaf area index (LAI) after fire.
- Dominique Itanze completes his Ph. D. Thesis and is set to become Assistant Professor of Chemistry
On June 26 th 2024 Dominique S. Itanze defended his Ph. D. thesis “First-Principles Simulations for Catalysis for Sustainable Production of Fuels and Chemicals” and is scheduled to officially receive his Ph. D. from the Wake Forest University Department of Chemistry in August, 2024. Dominique’s work is interdisciplinary; mentored by Professors Scott Geyer and Patricia Dos Santos in Chemistry and Natalie Holzwarth in Physics. His committee also included Professors Akbar Salam and Elham Gadhiri in Chemistry and Stephen Winters in Physics. From the beginning of his graduate career, Dominique contributed to various projects in the Geyer laboratory through computer analysis and simulation, gradually increasing the sophistication of the computations. His most recent modeling work, some of which was presented to the Electrochemical Society shown in the picture, used newly available computational formalisms and codes which incorporate the effects of solvation and voltage at each step of the catalytic process. The manuscript “On the Mechanism of Butanol Formation from the Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 on Phosphorus-Rich CuP 2 without *CO Dimerization: A Computational Study” was submitted to the Journal of Physical Chemistry C for consideration for publication. Based on an experimental report in the recent published literature, Dominique’s simulations provide insight into the detailed mechanisms of this complex multi-step process. Dominique is looking forward to continuing his research and to teaching and mentoring students in chemistry at Winthrop University.
- Katie Koch awarded poster prize
Katie Koch was awarded a poster prize at the Gordon Research Conference for Unconventional Semiconductors and their Applications earlier this month at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.
- Keith Bonin named Richard T. Williams Faculty Chair in Physics
Prof Keith Bonin has been awarded the Richard T. Williams Faculty Chair in Physics, effective July 1, 2024. This endowed chair position is designated to go to an excellent faculty member who is engaged in interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching, and student mentorship.
Richard Williams was the first WFU Department of Physics Speas award recipient and returned to the faculty as the Reynolds Professor of Physics. Dr. Williams passed away in 2021 and we are grateful for his having established a Chaired position and all he has done for the department.
