Research
Missouri S&T to receive $1.7M in federal support for nuclear engineering research, student scholarships and campus reactor upgrades
The nuclear engineering program at Missouri S&T has recently been awarded a total of $1.7 million in federal support for research, student scholarships and safety upgrades to the university’s nuclear research reactor. The federal investment marks a strong commitment to one of the top nuclear engineering programs in the nation, says Dr. Richard Wlezien, vice provost and dean of engineering and computing at Missouri S&T.
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Missouri S&T civil engineering professor advocates for Midwest tornado preparation
Growing up in northeast China, Dr. Guirong (Grace) Yan didn’t see many tornados in a country where the number of documented twisters is a fraction of those that hit the United States. But as her academic career took Yan to several postdoctoral fellowships and then faculty positions in Indiana, Missouri and Texas, the assistant professor of structural engineering at Missouri S&T gradually found her calling.
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Explosives engineering research could boost coal mine safety
Mining engineering researchers at Missouri S&T plan to use explosives combined with common mining materials to test how well concrete seals in coal mine tunnels withstand high-speed projectiles. Their research could lead to improved designs of seals, which could improve coal mine safety.
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Missouri S&T researcher finds another good reason to trust your gut — and your ear
Within seconds, we make personal choices daily, such as what clothes to wear or what music to play in the car on the way to work. A cognitive neuroscientist at Missouri University of Science and Technology says gut-level decisions are important, and that intuition tends to be accurate for revealing our true preferences.
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Missouri S&T biochemical engineer patents low-cost method of removing bacterial toxins from fluids
By some estimates, 18 million people die each year from sepsis triggered by endotoxins – fragments of the outer membranes of bacteria. A biochemical engineer at Missouri S&T has patented a method of removing these harmful elements from water and also from pharmaceutical formulations. Her goal: improve drug safety and increase access to clean drinking water in the developing world.
The technique, as outlined in a July 2016 article in the journal Nanotechnology, involves a one-step phase separation method, using a syringe pump, to synthesize the nanoparticles. Those polymer nanoparticles have a high endotoxin removal efficiency of nearly 1 million endotoxin units per milliliter of water, using only a few micrograms of the material.
Military background spurs Missouri S&T explosives engineering Ph.D. student’s research on traumatic brain injury
While in the Marine Corps, Missouri S&T explosives engineering Ph.D. student Barbara Rutter saw the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on her fellow soldiers’ lives firsthand. Those experiences have led Rutter to devote her graduate research to the relationship between physical building damage and TBI occurrence, so that the military can easily determine if an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion has caused such an injury.
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Researchers mimic Legos for molecular building blocks, earn $411,000 NSF grant
Scientists at Missouri S&T are drawing inspiration from toy building blocks to create fixed molecular units used to accelerate the material discovery process known as rational design. They’ll use these “molecular blocks” to discover highly ionic conductive materials that could be used to make today’s much sought after all-solid-state lithium batteries.
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Not always bad—MXenes’ spontaneous oxidation harnessed to create 2-D nanocomposites
Researchers at Missouri S&T have discovered a new way to harness the potential of a type of spontaneously oxidized MXene thin films, to create nanocomposites that could sense both light and the environment. Previously, such spontaneous oxidation was considered detrimental because it degrades the MXene structure. The research is published in the June 2018 issue of ACS Nano, one of Google Scholar’s top-rated, peer-reviewed scientific journals.
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Rock-and-roll grandpa earns doctoral degree for research on using desert shrub as asphalt recycling agent
He’s driven the backroads with some of the biggest names in rock and roll, from Def Leppard and KISS to John Denver and the Eurythmics, hauling both gear and performers as a truck- and bus-driving roadie. Yet despite his many brushes with fame, what gets Mike Lusher most excited these days is his research into an unassuming desert shrub that some predict will revolutionize the rubber industry. A fascination with the guayule (why-YOO-lee) plant that began a dozen years ago while watching an episode of The History Channel show “Modern Marvels” has culminated in a Ph.D. in civil engineering for the 64-year-old grandfather, who received his diploma at May 12 commencement.
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