JENNIFER Q. LU FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS LAB
News
July, 2023
Michael Leveille (Ph.D.) will start his postdoc position at Sandia National Laboratory. Congrats!
July, 2023
Lexi Hefner begins her new chapter at Lu’s lab as a junior specialist.
June, 2023
Austin Ashworth joined Lu’s lab as a Ph.D. student. Welcome!
May, 2023
Kate Stephen received her MS and will begin her Ph.D. studies at UC Berkeley, Environmental Science and Engineering.
December 1, 2022
Michele has Michele has been awarded the School of Engineering's Outstanding Student Award for the Materials Science and Engineering department from the graduating undergraduate class of Fall 2022. Congrats!
August 31, 2022
A heartfelt farewell to Luke Jackson, who will be pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at UC Riverside with funding from the Chancellor's Fellowship!
April, 2023
Hanlin Kuo passed his qualifying exam and advanced to candidacy. Congratulations!
July 13, 2022
Many congrats to Will for his publication in Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis! Full Publication
May 25, 2022
Congratulations to Yaneth Hernandez! Yaneth is graduating with her Master of Science in Material Sciences & Engineering from Lu Lab Group and will be moving to New York to work as a Corrosion Scientist for PLUG Power. We will miss you, and good luck with the next steps in your career!
May 19, 2022
Thank you to Dr. Will Henderson, Dr. Weilai Yu, and Gaurav Ashish Kamat for visiting UC Merced and for presenting their research to MACES, we hope to see you three again soon!
April 16, 2022
Congratulations to Michele Campbell, winner of the CCBM/MACES symposium!
April 15, 2022
Congratulations to Michael Leveille and Yaneth Hernandez, winners of the MACES GladSlam!
April 12, 2022
Congratulations to Hanlin Kuo and our collaborators from the Shaowei Chen’s lab on the publication of Materials Advances on electrocatalysis. Please check out our latest publication in the latest issue of the journal “Materials Advances”.
Full Publication
November 2, 2021
MACES researchers reveal a new polymer based lightweight electrode that seamlessly integrates functional species with carbon nanotubes. This new platform opens up an opportunity to harness electrochemical reactions in the 3D carbon electrode for energy storage. Their work was published in “ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces”. Full Publication
October 23, 2021
Congrats to Dr. Qian. Enjoy the next steps in your career at Merck Millipore!
Bittersweet goodbye to Dr. Qian, thank you for all your support.
October 1, 2021
Luke Jackson and Michele Campbell are awarded the MACES undergraduate fellowship to do research under Professor Lu.
Congratulations to Luke and Michele!
September 29, 2021
A new way to harvest low-grade thermal energy has been revealed by MACES researchers (Jennifer Lu, Sai Ghosh, and Linda Hirst) and students (Michael Leveille and Jacqueline Bustamante). Please read our paper published in the latest issue of the journal “Advanced Science”. Full Publication
September 29, 2021
Employing the distinct property of our novel polymer film enables low-grade thermal energy harvesting with higher capacity than the conventional approaches. This finding has been published in the latest issue of the journal “Advanced Science”. Congrats to Michael, Jackie and Wenxin.
June 27, 2021
A bittersweet goodbye to Jackie, she will be conducting her summer internship at Merck and then go to UCLA for her PhD studies.
May 18, 2021
Congratulations to Michael for passing his PhD Candidacy Exam!
March 10, 2021
Featured in the Academic Times, MACES-supported research has led to the development of a new type of electrode material to power devices at very low temperatures. Interspersed with nano- and micro-scale pores, the material operates without energy sucking heaters, which are a requirement for the batteries now used in space travel and other environments with extremely low temperatures. We look forward to working with NASA to investigate how this breakthrough can contribute to the human space exploration missions to Mars and Moon. Article Link
February 19, 2021
Our students, trained in our lab, were featured on Univision’s newscast.
​
Victoria Arias, Yaneth Hernandez and Jacqueline Bustamante, three Hispanic undergraduates, are now on their way to obtain advanced STEM degrees. They credit our lab’s research training and supportive environment helped to boost their confidence of succeeding in graduate school and beyond. Article Link
February 19, 2021
Jacqueline Bustamante, one of our undergraduate researchers, shared her experience in the UC Merced Newsroom. She discussed a memorable project she worked on with Dr. Lu and how MACES has impacted her professional career.
Article Link
February 5, 2021
Our students’, Yaneth Hernandez and Jacqueline Bustamante, STEM journeys have been featured in an article on the NASA.gov website. Article Link
November 1, 2020
Jason Qian joined Lu’s lab after finishing his postdoctoral training at the University of Alberta. Welcome, Jason!
October 2020
Our DBCOD paper was published on JAC by Dr. Fu with support from Jacqueline Bustamante.
October 2020
Welcome to our lab, Rob Villa.
A paper authored by Prof. Lu and other MACES faculty about the significant impact of undergraduate research experience on future career has been published in the current issue of Journal of STEM Ed. Article Link
September 17, 2020
Hanlin Kuo has joined our lab. Welcome, Hanlin!
September 3, 2020
MACES renewal grant led by Prof. Jennifer Lu has been selected. News Link
July 2, 2020
Funding: Teaming up with Prof. Wei-chun Chin and Changqing Li, we received a CITRIS's Rapid Response seed grant. News Link
May 12, 2020
Bittersweet goodbye to Victoria Arias. Victoria will pursue her PhD studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
May 2020
February 24, 2020
Congressman Jim Costa visited MACES, met students and faculty, and visited the labs. He was impressed by our accomplishments and also offered his support to us for future endeavors.
Congrats to Carlos Ortuno for completing MS and landing an industrial position.
February 2020
February 1, 2020
Lab specialist, Dr. Muharrem Acerce (third from left), who is now faculty at Istanbul University, spent two weeks at our lab in February working with us on an energy storage project.
_edited.jpg)
December 14, 2019
Michael Leveille won first place in the MACES GradSLAM event.
Dr. Fu successfully earned a faculty position at the prestigious institution, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
November 1, 2019
Dr. Xuan holds a PhD in Chemistry from Sorbonne University. Previously, Dr. Xuan completed two years of Post doctoral research in the synthesis and application of artificial DNA bases and the construction of DNA nanostructure for cancer therapy at College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
November 8, 2019
National Science Foundation Lab awarded Prof. Lu a grant for creating a new type of low-energy driven sub-molecular switch.
August 10, 2019
A good luck and goodbye to Katerina Nikolaidou who will begin working at the INESC Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
August 2019
July 8, 2019
Dinner with the product manager from Nissan Chemical Corporation.
Bittersweet goodbye to James Rosenberg. James will pursue his PhD studies at University of Utah.
July 2019
June 24, 2019
Jennifer Lu’s lab hosted visitors from local high schools.
Maripox Cox, an undergraduate from California State University at Stanislaus will conduct her summer research experience in our lab.
June 9, 2019
Katerina Nikolaidou was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship award at the INESC Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Congrats.
May 15, 2019
Carlos Ortuno has received an MS and started his professional career in the industry. Congrats.
May 10, 2019
May 1, 2019
Victoria Aries was selected to be the undergraduate speaker at the 2019 Spring commencement ceremony.
Alexis Durand from National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon will conduct his senior research project on green energy in our lab. Welcome.
April 12, 2019
February 28, 2019
Nissan Chemical Corporation agreed to provide support to our polymer research.
Muharrem Acerce was appointed to be a faculty at Istanbul University. Congrats Muharrem!
September 1, 2018
Victoria Arias won a big prize. She has been designated as Most likely to Win a Nobel Prize among all. Spring 2018 NASA intern specialists at NASA-Langley. Congrats Victoria.
May 3, 2018
Ian Hill and Carlos Ortuno presented their research outcomes on "Large negative thermal expansion of a polymer driven by a sub molecular conformational change" and "Freestanding 3D Hierarchical Carbon Electrode Enabled by Poly(Diaminonaphthalene) for Energy Storage and Oxygen Reduction Reaction" at the 2018 American Chemical Society National meeting and Expo in New Orleans.
March 18, 2018
Julia Ramos was selected by MACES to conduct summer research at NASA Langley. Congrats!
March 4, 2018
Katerina Nikolaidou won 3rd place in the 2017 MACES Grad Slam competition.
December 6, 2017
Undergraduate student, Joseph Serrano, will join Intel as a process engineer in September.
August 7, 2017
Undergraduate student, Robynne Paldi was awarded with a National GEM Ph.D. Science Fellowship that provides stipends and tuition support to outstanding minority students pursuing doctoral degrees. She will pursue her PhD study at Purdue University. Congrats.
May 31, 2017
May 13, 2017
Undergraduate student, Robynne Paldi, received an outstanding undergraduate students award. Congrats.
Undergraduate student , Eric Provencio, got admitted to the Engineering Management graduate Program at UC Irvine.
May 1, 2017
New graduate student, Justin Ramirez, was selected to participate in the UC Merced Summer Bridge Program. Congrats.
April 15, 2017
Undergraduate students, James Rosenberg and Victoria Aries, were accepted by NASA-Langley as summer interns to work on BN based composites for the aerospace application.
April 12, 2017
Carlos Ortuño was selected to do electrochemical research in the Photovoltaics and Electrochemical Systems branch on the Li ion battery related project at NASA–Glenn.
April 12, 2017
Graduate students, Ian Hill and Carlos Ortuno also presented their work on polymer hydrogels and energy storage and conversion respectively at the Spring ACS meeting.
April 4, 2017
Our undergraduate students James Rosenberg and Robynne Paldi presented their research findings as first co-authors at the 2017 Spring American Chemical Society Meeting.
April 4, 2017
Katerina delivered an oral presentation at the annual Physics Society Meeting on the effect of ZnO on Pervoskite electron transport properties, New Orleans, Louisiana
March 14, 2017
Derek Brigham just accepted a job offer from Pratt & Whitney.
December 21, 2016
Carlos Ortuño was selected by NASA to attend the Southern Regional Education Board’s 2016 Institute on Teaching and Mentoring.
October 22, 2016
Katerina Nikolaidou passed her Ph.D. qualify exam.
October 14, 2016
Katerina Nikolaidou received Southern California Edison Fellowship.
September 15, 2016
Prof. Lu co-organized the MACES and Zeiss Open House. News coverage included our students Ian Hill and Derek Brigham.
July 15, 2016
Robynn-LynnePaldi and James Rosenberg will go to Northwestern University and NASA-Langley research center doing research this summer.
June 10, 2016
Karen Ramirez got admitted to the Materials Science and Engineering Department at San Jose State University. Congratulations, Karen!
June 5, 2016
Carlos Ortuño won the prestigious Eugene Cota-Robles fellowship. Congratulations!