Event Category: Osmotic Power

2023 NSF and NASA EPSCoR Research Fellowships: What You Need to Know

Author
Brittney Van Der Werff

What is the goal? 

To provide opportunities for non-tenured AND tenured investigators to develop their individual research potential through extended collaborative visits to the Nation’s premier private, governmental, or academic research centers. Only investigators from research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions in EPSCoR states (including NM) are eligible to apply.
 

What’s new in 2023?

Changes impacting both Tracks:

NM EPSCoR Impacts Series: Energize NM

Author
Brittney Van Der Werff

In the world of academia, the proof is in the publications, not the pudding – unless, of course, the publication is on pudding.

In the first year of New Mexico's last NSF EPSCoR project, the Energize New Mexico team produced 18 peer-reviewed publications. As time passed, these numbers predictably increased, with 27 in year three and 49 in year five. Now the grant is over, but papers are still being published. 

Reuse of Produced Water Offers Energy Savings

Author
Natalie Rogers

New Mexico depends heavily on revenue generated by oil and gas extraction throughout the state, but significant environmental concerns remain about extraction and production, especially with regards to water use. Oil and gas production generates billions of gallons of what is referred to as "produced water", much of it with very high concentrations of dissolved solids, and much of it originates as fresh groundwater, a precious commodity in the desert southwest.

Osmotic Team Accomplishments Grab Headlines

Author
Natalie Rogers
NM EPSCoR research through the Osmotic Power Team is getting some much deserved attention in Socorro for their collaborative work with Masson Greenhouse, a large local greenhouse using geothermal energy. Team lead Frank Huang and his students have spend the last four years fabricating and testing membranes with the ability to clean brackish geothermal waters so it can be used to water the plants grown at the greenhouse. New Mexico Tech's newsroom published an article that was picked up by the local Socorro county newspaper, the El Defensor Chieftain.

Externship Report: Taoguang Qu

Author
Taoguang Qu

The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from New Mexico Highlands University student Taoguang Qu about his two months at New Mexico Tech.

This summer, I participated in the two month externship program supported by the EPSCoR foundation. I had an unforgettable experience working in the Osmotic Power Development at New Mexico Tech.

Externship Report: Adam Martinez

Author
Adam Martinez
The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from New Mexico Tech student Adam Martinez about his externship in California at Trevi Systems.

Externship Report: Xu Wang

Author
Xu Wang

Over the summer, two students participated in the NM EPSCoR Externship Program. The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from NMHU student Xu Wang about his summer at New Mexico Tech.

Membrane Fabrication and Characterization Workshop

Author
Kelsy Waggaman, NMT

Fifteen students and five faculty researchers from New Mexico Tech, New Mexico Highlands University, and Eastern New Mexico University congregated at the New Mexico Tech Environmental Engineering Laboratory, June 9 – 11 to learn the basics of membrane fabrication and characterization. The first in a series of technical workshops, this three-day intensive workshop was designed to establish and nurture a vibrant research infrastructure in New Mexico for osmotic power development.