Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex

Chemist, classicist earn prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships

Anonymous — Thu, 04 May 2023 04:04:50 +0000

Chemist, classicist earn prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/03/2023 - 22:04

Gordana Dukovic and Elspeth Dusinberre win support to enlarge the frontiers of sustainable chemistry and knowledge of the ancient Phrygians, respectively

Two University of Colorado Boulder professors have won prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships, which support the recipients’ research and scholarly work and aim to help them “engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.”

Gordana Dukovic, professor of chemistry, and Elspeth Dusinberre, professor of distinction of classics, are among 171 scholars and artists in the 2023 class of fellows announced last month by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Chosen from a rigorous application and peer-review process out of almost 2,500 applicants, “these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise,” the foundation said.

Top of the page: Ancient city of Gordion, in Phrygia. Above: Gordana Dukovic (PhD Columbia University 2006) is an expert in nanotechnology/materials, physical chemistry and renewable energy.

“Like Emerson, I believe that fullness in life comes from following our calling,” said Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation and 1985 fellow in poetry. “The new class of fellows has followed their calling to enhance all of our lives, to provide greater human knowledge and deeper understanding. We’re lucky to look to them to bring us into the future.”

With support from the Guggenheim fellowship, Dusinberre plans to investigate the social structures, palaces and uses of power among the early Phrygians, who lived in what is now Turkey ca. 950-800 BCE. Meanwhile, Dukovic aims to use the fellowship support to develop new research directions in using nanomaterials for sustainable chemistry.

Seeking insights into the ancient Phrygian kingdom

Dusinberre explains the context of her work this way: Phrygia was the main powerhouse society of what is now Turkey in the years 900-600 BCE, but its social structures, palaces and expressions of power remain relatively poorly understood. She will focus on the enormous buildings and material culture of the elite quarter at Gordion, capital of Phrygia and seat of King Midas of the Golden Touch from Greek myth.

In 800 BCE, she explains, Gordion was consumed in a great conflagration apparently caused by an accident—an event that marked the end of the Early Phrygian period (ca. 950-800 BCE). Gordion's inhabitants buried the burned buildings under meters of clean clay and rebuilt the city at a higher level but on the same plan as before, sealing off and preserving the buildings and artifacts “in an almost Pompeii-like manner.”

Elspeth Dusinberre (PhD Michigan 1997) is interested in cultural interactions in Anatolia, particularly in the ways in which the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE) affected local social structures and in the give-and-take between Achaemenid and other cultures.

“The area was excavated between 1950 and 1973, but the results have hitherto been presented only very partially and in disparate publications,” Dusinberre writes. “My scholarship will interrogate how people lived at Gordion in 800 BCE, why they made the decisions they did, how they negotiated power, and how these local behaviors related to the other great societies of the eastern Mediterranean at the time. Complex choices and actions at the nexus of intertwined politics and religion make my project germane to modern humanistic studies as well as ancient.”

Dusinberre notes that Gordion’s archaeological import is indisputable, adding that all other first-millennium archaeological sites in this part of the world are dated and contextualized in relation to Gordion.

“My study will present datable archaeological material of the Early Phrygian period for the first time, helping other archaeologists throughout the eastern Mediterranean to date their own artifacts in relation to Gordion’s and understand their sites’ cultural developments within the context of Gordion’s,” she writes.

“This is particularly significant because we have no texts from Phrygia to help scholars understand this period: the archaeological material is our only source of evidence.”

Employing the fellowship and a sabbatical leave, Dusinberre plans to finish a book reporting the results of her work by the end of next year. Meanwhile, she notes, “it is tremendously exciting to be poised so as to bring this remarkable material to the public.”

Dusinberre holds a PhD in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in classical archaeology from Harvard University. She joined the CU Boulder faculty in 2000.

Researching ways to harness solar power to replace fossil fuels

Each kilowatt-hour (kWh) of solar that is generated will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions like CO₂, as well as other dangerous pollutants such as sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Solar also reduces water consumption and withdrawal. (ENERGY.GOV)

Dukovic studies light-driven processes in nanoscale materials and describes herself as a passionate teacher and mentor of junior scientists. In addition to her faculty position, she serves as an associate director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, where she is a fellow.

As Dukovic notes, “The overarching goal of my research is to replace fossil fuels by harnessing solar energy to drive useful and interesting chemical reactions with light.”

The potential of solar energy is staggering, she observes: “It would take just a little over an hour of solar energy that strikes the Earth to power the planet for a year, but this diffuse and spread-out energy must first be converted into usable forms like electricity and fuels.”

Making this conversion efficient and cost-effective is a clear path toward a sustainable and climate-friendly future. One method is using sunlight to make new chemical bonds that store solar energy, so that it can be used on demand, Dukovic notes. “To do this, we need materials that absorb light optimally and catalysts that speed up the making of new bonds.”

Dukovic’s research lab seeks to contribute to a sustainable future by using sunlight to drive important chemical reactions. She studies structural, electronic and excited state properties of semiconductor nanomaterials to elucidate the processes that occur immediately after absorption of light.

Dukovic also couples nanomaterials with catalysts such as enzymes to drive useful and complex reactions with sunlight. She has received the NSF CAREER Award and was named a Sloan Research Fellow, Cottrell Scholar, Beckman Young Investigator and finalist for the Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists.

Dukovic holds a PhD in physical chemistry, with distinction, from Columbia University and earned a BA in chemistry, graduating summa cum laude and as valedictorian from Douglass College at Rutgers University. She joined the CU Boulder faculty in 2009.

Gordana Dukovic and Elspeth Dusinberre win support to enlarge the frontiers of sustainable chemistry and knowledge of the ancient Phrygians, respectively.

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SEEC positions CU as global hub for Earth research

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 22:20:00 +0000

SEEC positions CU as global hub for Earth research Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/27/2016 - 16:20

Laura Kriho

The new Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex (SEEC) at the University of Colorado Boulder is now open. After many years of hard work by scores of people, the university held an official dedication ceremony on April 14 for the $114 million scientific collaboration center, which will position CU as a global hub for environmental, energy and sustainability research.

Several CU dignitaries and donors spoke at the ceremony.

“SEEC establishes CU-Boulder as the epicenter for environmental sciences and geosciences research nationally and perhaps worldwide,” said CU Provost Russ Moore. “The opportunity for our students is going to be incredible.”

Chancellor Philip DiStefano concurred, “SEEC offers a new gateway to the university, welcoming the community for public talks, artist exhibits, educational outreach and department centers.”

Bob Sievers, a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and one of the major donors to the project, said, “Sustainability is about reduction of stress, reduction of pain. It is the future of our world. We are on a new journey.”

SEEC consists of two buildings: a brand-new 115,000-square-foot, LEED-certified laboratory building with state-of-the-art analytical instruments and synthesis capabilities and an adjoining refurbished 289,000-square-foot educational facility designed for departmental centers, teaching, programs, collaborative work and community outreach. The complex is located on East Campus, near the northwest corner of Foothills Parkway and Colorado Avenue.

SEEC was designed as a collaborative space to bring together the best minds in the world to tackle problems related to sustainability, energy and the environment.

“Our world is facing significant issues with the changing environment, increasing populations and limited resources,” DiStefano said. “The intersection of people, resources and our planet is where CU-Boulder can use its expertise to address the world’s most pressing problems.”

“The new building is a spectacular instantiation of what that kind of innovative, interdisciplinary, forward-thinking work can represent and produce,” said John Stevenson, dean of the Graduate School. “This building is crucial for the future of the planet. We have done enormous damage to it in the name of progress. A place like this will change the way the world thinks about its own future.”

“SEEC has been a long and evolutionary process,” said Jim White, director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), who was an integral part of the planning process. “What began as a single building in the Grandview area of campus for environmental studies has become two buildings” that will house many researchers from many different disciplines and agencies.

Some of the entities that will be collaborating at SEEC include:

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department (ATOC)
Center for the American West
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado State University (CSU)
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Environmental Engineering Department
Environmental Studies Department
Federal agencies and contractors, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR)
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI)

Vice Chancellor for Research Terri Fiez remarked, “We are excited about the future research in education in the energy and environment. Our partners are key to that. We see this as an opportunity to deepen these relationships. When that all comes together, it will change the way we do what we’ve done traditionally at CU. That’s what this building is really about is transforming the opportunities.”

The CU administration emphasized that the facilities were created without financial help from the state. DiStefano said, “It’s notable that SEEC had no state funding whatsoever. We did this on our own. It was totally funded by the university and our donors who believe in what we can accomplish.”

“The state has difficulty with capital construction funds, but it doesn’t stop us from taking the lead to do things in the areas of sustainability, the environment and energy,” DiStefano remarked.

Photos from SEEC Opening Ceremony, April 14, 2016

Click on picture for larger image.

SEEC educational building, west-face.	SEEC educational building, west-face.
SEEC educational building, west-face.	SEEC laboratory building, west-face
SEEC laboratory building, south-face.	Chancellor Phillip DiStefano speaks at the opening ceremony.
Jim White	CU Provost Russ Moore speaks at the opening ceremony.
Brian Daniell and his wife, Vicki Bynum (left-side couple), donated more than $500,000 to build the Albert A. Bartlett Science Communication Center at SEEC. Jim White and his wife, Kristen White.	Bob and Nancy Sievers, major donors, pose with the marble “Lincoln chair” that Bob Sievers carved out of a piece of Colorado marble that had been a discarded scrap from the blocks of marble used to make the Lincoln memorial.

Laura Kriho is web and publications coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences.

The newly completed Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex “establishes CU-Boulder as the epicenter for environmental sciences and geosciences research nationally and perhaps worldwide,” says Provost Russ Moore. The center was officially dedicated this month.

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