KAI D
Kai Du( Management )has beenawarded a Deloitte Foundation Doc-toral Fellowship in Accounting, a two-year prize given by the not-or-proft arm o Deloitte
LLP
to support gradu-ate research. He joins a distinguishedgroup o more than 1,000 accounting
PH.D.
candidates who have receivedthis prestigious award over the last 55 years. Nearly 100 universities nation-wide are invited to nominate studentsor the honor, with ten winners selectedeach year. Shyam Sunder is Kai’ sadvisor, and his committee includesRick Antle, Jacob Thomas, and AlehTsyvinski. His dissertation is titled“Essays on the Relation between Eco-nomic Fundamentals and Accounting Inormation.” He earned a
B.A.
infnance rom Peking University and an
M.A.
in economics rom Georgetown.
MARIA TAROTIA
Maria Taroutina( History o Art ) will present “Triangulating Modern-ism: Icons, Vrubel and Soviet Con-structivism” at the symposium “Art in Russia, 1770–1920” on March 25 in the Loria Center at 190 York St.She is co-organizing the event withMolly Brunson, assistant proessor o Slavic Languages and Literatures.This is the frst time Yale is hosting asymposium dedicated to Russian art,and Maria is the only Yale graduatestudent on the program. Her talkduring the session on “Modern Icons” will examine the ways in which awidespread revival o medieval art in Russia in the last quarter o thenineteenth century catalyzed the riseo Modernism and the Russianavant-garde. Maria’ s dissertation,“From the Tessara to the Square:Russian Modernism and theRusso-Byzantine Revival,” isadvised by David Joselit andTim Barringer. She earnedher undergraduate degree romYale College.
involved in the project, rather than whenworking somewhere alone.”“Solar power only works when thesun is shining, but we need power 24/7, soenergy storage is essential,” saysCrabtree. His group ocuses ontwo aspects o converting solarpower into a storable uel.The frst aspect involvescollaboration with the Batista, Brudvig,and Schmuttenmaer groups to achieve thedirect conversion o water by solar light intohydrogen and oxygen, a step that is necessaryto store energy as a uel. Oana Luca makes thecatalysts that split water to produce hydrogen,James Blakemore and athan Schley makethe catalysts that produce oxy-gen, and Laura Allen and LaurenMartini make the organic struc-tures that link these componentstogether.The second aspect requiresCrabtree’s collaboration withBatista’s group and scientistsrom
ge
, Stanord, and Berkeley.They address the issue o storing the solarenergy, “not as hydrogen, a material that’snormally expensive to store, but in the ormo a liquid uel that unctions like today’sgasoline, but avoids the carbon emissions thataect climate,” Crabtree explains. “In a utureautomobile, the driver would use our liquiduel to provide motive power, but carbon-emission-ree.”At weekly meetings, members o all ourteams share their latest results and present anyproblems that they have encountered. “Themeetings range anywhere rom one to twohours,” says Rebecca(Becky)Milot, a mem-ber o Schmuttenmaer’s group. “Each week three or our people present a ew Power-Point slides about the progress that theyhave made since their last presentation. Thepresentations are not overly ormal and aremeant to stimulate discussion. We spend thebulk o the time discussing data, answeringquestions, and planning uture experi-ments.”“In addition to exposing me to otherchemistry sub-disciplines, the meetings helpme to maintain the ocus o my research,”Becky says. “Without the structure o thegroup and the constant reminder o ourlong-term goals, I think that it would bevery easy to get side-tracked.”The collaborations continue beyondthe meetings. “We oten stop by each other’sofces and labs to coordinate experiments,talk about papers we are writing together,or just ask questions that we did not addressduring the meeting,” she says.During each o the past three sum-mers, the collaborators have held a solarsymposium at which aculty, postdoctoralellows, and graduate students present theirresearch on solar uel production, photo-chemistry, chemical methods o reducingcarbon dioxide, and related topics.Snoeberger, one o Batista’s students.“While working in the group, I’ve had achance to learn about inorganic chemistry,synthesis, and electrochemistry. At timesI’ve tried to resist and stick to my chosenfeld, but it has been a git to learn rom theother proessors and their students in theirelement, doing research.”“The problem o generating uels withsunlight is incredibly challenging,” notesJames Blakemore, whose work overlapsboth Crabtree’s and Brudvig’s areas. “Aschemists, we need to throw everything wecollectively have at the system to get it work-ing in the end. The answer will not lie withany one discipline, but rather in the midst o many. I have become knowledgeable on onesmall piece o the puzzle(electrochemistryand catalysis)and, luckily, can hand o thework to my colleagues with complementaryspecialties. Thus, we all get to do and learnmore about the system.”“It is defnitely an advantage to beable to see the whole story,” says graduatestudent Laura Allen, who is in Crabtree’sphotocatalysis group. “I can make some-thing that has been suggested computation-ally by the Batista group and then give itto both the Schmuttenmaer and Brudviggroups or urther analysis without havingto send out materials and wait or monthsor a possible answer, which can happenwhen your collaborator is in another stateor country. Through these meetings, I’vealso been exposed to a tremendous amounto chemistry outside my niche, or which Iam very thankul. We are a tight-knit group,and I eel like I can go seek advice rom anyo the our
pi
s
without hesitation.”“Our collaborative work in many waysis an on-going conversation,” James says.“I seem to always have my best momentso inspiration when talking to other people
“Our collaborative work in many ways is an on-going conver-sation. seem to always have my best moments of inspirationwhen talking to other people involved in the project, ratherthan when working somewhere alone.”
JAES BLAEOE
Green Energy Consortium, continued
“Solar power only works when the sun is shining, but we needpower
24
/
7
, so energy storage is essential.”
OBET CABTEE
U O S
Left: ow the solar cell works. Solar light driveselectrons from the light absorber (purple dots andpurple column) through the titanium dioxide electrodematerial (gray spheres) to the electrode. An iodinebased solution carries the electrons (green arrows)from the counter electrode back to the light absorb-ers through the liquid in which the electrode andcounter electrode are immersed.Below: embers of the solar fuel research teaminclude (standing) obert Crabtree, Gary Brudvig,ebecca ilot, Victor Batista, James Blakemore,Charles Schmuttenmaer and(seated)obertSnoeberger
and Laura Allen.
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