ND Energy at the University of Notre Dame has announced the recipients of its 2026 student research fellowships. The selected graduate and undergraduate students will receive funding to support work advancing sustainable energy research at the University.
ND Energy hosts the following annual fellowship opportunities: the Vincent P. Slatt Fellowships for Undergraduate Research in Energy Systems and Processes, the Patrick and Jana Eilers Graduate Student Fellowship for Energy Related Research, and the John '00 and Karla Forgash Graduate Student Fellowships for Solar Energy Research and Energy Storage Research.
“It’s an honor to offer these opportunities to such talented students,” said Joule Bergerson, the ND Energy Faculty Director and Richard and Ellen Stanley Professor of Energy Systems Engineering. “ND Energy is immensely grateful to the Slatt, Eilers, and Forgash families for their generous support of these fellowships, which enable our students to pursue impactful projects year after year.”
Slatt Fellowships for Undergraduate Research
The Vincent P. Slatt Fellowships for Undergraduate Research in Energy Systems and Processes provide awards during the academic year of up to $2,500 per student per semester, as well as awards of up to $8,500 for students participating in full-time research over the summer, to students engaged in research on energy systems and processes.
Slatt Semester Fellows
Natalya Avendaño, Aerospace Engineering major and Energy Studies minor
Advisor: Peter C. Burns
Project Title: Impact of High-Vanadium Rocks on Uranium Recovery
Avendaño’s project focuses on improving uranium recovery from ores that contain high levels of vanadium, which can bind with uranium and reduce the amount that can be extracted. She will investigate how vanadium behaves in uranium-rich environments and explore ways to either remove it or prevent it from interfering with uranium recovery.
William Brown, Chemical Engineering
Advisor: Ruilan Guo
Project Title: Engineering Non-leaching Sulfonated Dopants in Polybenzimidazole Membranes for Energy-Efficient High-Temperature H2/CO2 Separation
Brown’s project focuses on engineering advanced polymer membranes for high-temperature gas separation. By blending material combinations, he aims to develop durable, efficient membranes that will assist in lowering the cost of clean hydrogen production.
Dani Fielding, Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace concentration) and Gender Studies majors
Advisor: Ian Lightcap
Project Title: Graphene for Transmission Lines
Fielding will investigate the cooling effect of various graphene coatings when applied to materials used in power transmission lines. Through rigorous laboratory testing in realistic conditions, her work will enable cost-effective, sustainable materials that can be adopted in real-world infrastructure.
Ryan King, Chemical Engineering major and Energy Studies minor
Advisor: Ryan McClarren
Project Title: Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Reactor Optimization
King will focus on designs for a reactor equipped with a strong electric field to induce a fusion reaction in deuterium gas, advancing efforts toward the practical realization of fusion energy.
Madeline Schearer, Chemistry major and Energy Studies and Environmental Earth Sciences minors
Advisor: Adam Jaffe
Project Title: Dimensionality-Driven Optical and Electronic Evolution of Naphthalenediimide-Templated Hybrid Metal Oxides
Schearer will create new hybrid metal-organic oxide materials relevant to energy technologies such as electrochromics, energy storage, and catalysis. She will explore the incorporation of naphthalene diimides, redox and photoactive ligands, into hybrid metal-organic oxides, and the corresponding properties of these materials.
James Sutterlin, Chemistry and Philosophy (Science and Math concentration) majors
Advisor: David Bartels
Project Title: Electrochemical Investigation into Oxide Growth Kinetics and Charge-Carrier Dynamics of Electron-Irradiated Zirconium
Sutterlin will investigate the mechanisms by which zirconium alloys, which are commonly used in nuclear reactors, corrode in reactor environments by irradiating zirconium samples with an electron beam. By simulating these radiation effects, mitigation strategies can be refined, and nuclear power generation can be optimized to provide even more consistent and reliable low-emission energy.
Slatt Summer Fellows
Ignatius Caro, Chemistry and Piano Performance majors, Glynn Family Honors Program
Advisor: Seth Brown
Project Title: An Inquiry into Anomalous Sn2 Self-Exchange Rates in Cobalt Metal-Ligand Complexes
Caro will examine the reactivity of cobalt metal-ligand complexes by synthesizing new complexes and exploring their potential relevance in creating energy-efficient biochemical and industrial processes.
Margaret Kelley, Chemical Engineering major and Energy Studies minor
Advisor: Jennifer Schaefer
Project Title: Investigating the Impact of Acetamide Concentration on the Ionic Conductivity Electrolytes
Kelley will analyze the effect of solvent ratios on the conductivity of battery electrolytes, attempting to optimize cation dynamics and make the batteries more efficient for use in a wide variety of industry settings.
James Phillips, Chemical Engineering major, and Energy Studies and Engineering Corporate Practice minors
Advisor: Prashant Kamat
Project Title: Quantum Dot Size Exclusion
Phillips will contribute to improving the efficiency of solar energy by creating hybrid materials that better capture and convert sunlight into usable power. By adjusting the size of quantum dots, he aims to control how energy is transferred to specialized dye molecules, contributing to the development of more powerful and cost-effective renewable energy technologies.
Ian Talty, Chemistry and Mathematics majors and History minor
Advisor: Aliaksandra Lisouskaya
Project Title: Transition Metal Reaction Kinetics and Mechanistic Pathways in Nuclear Coolant Water
Talty will simulate and analyze reactions between metal ions that enter nuclear coolant water and the highly reactive species present in that water due to the high energy radiation produced by nuclear reactors. This study aims to help engineers more effectively model corrosion in reactors, preserve reactors currently in use, and develop new reactors with greater longevity.
Slatt Visiting Summer Fellows
Royce Jaret Ugarte Cruz, Chemical Engineering major and Bioseparation and Bioprocesses minor, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Advisor: Yamil Colón
Project Title: Rapid screening of MOFs for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture
Cruz will computationally identify metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high selectivity for carbon dioxide, particularly in mixtures with gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide. He will run mixture adsorption simulations, generate adsorption isotherms, evaluate desorption behavior, and implement active learning for improved efficiency.
Berenice S. Serrano-Ortiz, Mechanical Engineering major, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Advisor: Yanliang Zhang
Project Title: 3D Printing of Soft Bioelectronic and Environmental Sensors
Serrano-Ortiz will develop functional, 3D-printed electronic devices that are relevant for next-generation bioelectronics and environmental sensing. She will fabricate and characterize these recording devices and print sensors for monitoring and evaluating environmental behaviors and diagnostics.
Miguel A. Irizarry Roman, Industrial Engineering major and Economics minor, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Advisor: Alexander Dowling
Project Title: Supply Chain Modeling and Analysis for Refrigerant Circularity
Irizarry will develop a refrigerant recycling supply chain model for the U.S. based on historical import and demand data, which will then be used to assess the opportunities for economic circularity using various recovery technologies.
Esra Omer, Chemical Engineering major and Chemistry minor, Howard University
Advisor: William Phillip
Project Title: Designing MOSC-Polymer Composite Structures for Enhanced Solute Capture in HVACR Systems
Omer will incorporate Metal-Organic Supercontainers (MOSCs), which possess promising molecular-recognition capabilities, into porous polymer matrices to create composite materials capable of more rapid and efficient separations. The outcome will improve and accelerate materials applicable to sustainable heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) systems.
Eilers Graduate Student Fellowship
The Patrick and Jana Eilers Graduate Student Fellowship for Energy Related Research provides awards of $11,572 to graduate students engaged in energy-related research to support their stipend.
Paul Ubiododo Chibuzor Amagada, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Advisor: Edward Maginn
Project Title: Computational Discovery and Design of Next-Generation Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) for High-Performance Energy Storage with a Focus on Redox Flow Batteries
Amagada will apply molecular simulations and machine learning to design deep eutectic solvent (DES)-based electrolytes for safer, more affordable large-scale energy storage. These unique solvents have the potential to replace conventional redox flow battery electrolytes, enabling more reliable storage of renewable energy from wind and solar.
Bikram Ghosh, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Gregory Hartland
Project Title: Plasmon-Exciton Coupling in Metal-Semiconductor Heterostructures for Solar Energy Harvesting and Advanced Optoelectronics
Ghosh will explore new ways to control how light energy moves and is shared between metals and semiconductor materials. By combining gold nanostructures with a semiconductor, Ghosh aims to control how light energy moves and transforms at the nanoscale, paving the way for more efficient solar energy harvesting and faster, low-power optical computing technologies.
Navya Gupta, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Adam Jaffe
Project Title: Exploring Chemical Reactivity Within the Organic Framework of Hybrid Tungsten Oxides
Gupta’s work focuses on hybrid tungsten oxides as a tunable solid-state platform for studying chemical reactivity and enabling post-synthetic transformations. These hybrid metal oxides combine 2D metal-oxide layers with organic species, enabling applications across energy storage, catalysis, energy conversion, gas separation and absorption, and the capture and reactivity of halogenated gases and key greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide.
Logan Hennes, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Advisor: Jonathan Whitmer
Project Title: Thermodynamics and Structural Distortions of Inorganic Interfaces
Hennes will investigate how to control defects, interfaces, and disorder in quantum materials, focusing on neutral divacancy (VV) defects in silicon carbide (SiC), a material which offers long coherence times and is already widely used in the semiconductor industry, making VVs in SiC a readily available and scalable qubit platform for quantum information science.
Manish Mukherjee, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Prashant Kamat
Project Title: Room Temperature Size Tuning of Quantum Dots for Photocatalysis
Mukherjee will examine the behavior of emerging materials such as perovskites and quantum dots—a key step toward using them in advanced solar cells, future clean-energy devices, and even solar fuel generation. These materials can be made cheaply and possess exceptional light-harvesting efficiency, making them promising for finding sustainable methods of meeting growing global energy demands.
Capra Williams, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Advisor: Ashley Thrall
Project Title: Additive Manufacturing of Extraterrestrial Structures with Integrated Energy Efficiency
Williams will investigate the construction and design of habitats on the Moon, focusing on structural design practices that support the regulation of environmental temperatures suitable for human life, contributing to NASA’s goal of permanent habitation in the extraterrestrial environment and informing energy-efficient design of structures on Earth. Her work will integrate thermal energy efficiency into structural designs to significantly decrease the power and fuel required to regulate the internal temperature of such a dwelling.
Forgash Graduate Student Fellowships
The John '00 and Karla Forgash Graduate Student Fellowship for Solar Energy Research provides an annual award of $6,000 to a graduate student engaged in solar energy research to support their stipend, laboratory supplies, and travel to a national conference to present their work.
Kasuni Umeshika Handunge, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Emily Tsui
Project Title: Modulating Nanocrystal Surfaces for Tunable Photocatalysis and Photostability
Handunge will study how ligand and metal effects influence the surface chemistry of semiconductor nanocrystals, which can drive useful photochemical reactions relevant to renewable energy conversion and sustainable chemical synthesis, but are susceptible to material degradation under prolonged illumination. Her work will contribute to the development of robust, high-performance materials for solar-driven chemical transformations.
The John '00 and Karla Forgash Graduate Student Fellowship for Energy Storage Research provides an annual award of $5,000 to a graduate student engaged in energy storage research to support their stipend, laboratory supplies, and travel to a national conference to present their work.
Suchen Wan, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Adam Jaffe
Project Title: Developing Low-Dimensional Hybrid Vanadium Oxides for Energy-related Applications
Wan will design new organic-inorganic hybrid metal oxide materials with precisely tunable energy storage and electrical conduction properties, helping make energy use more efficient and responsive. By understanding how a material’s structure affects its behavior under light or electricity, his work supports future technologies such as more efficient batteries and smart window coating.
To learn more about these student research fellowships and how to apply in future cycles, please visit the ND Energy website.