Cody Schlenker receives NSF CAREER Award

Submitted by Kimberly Quigley on

Assistant Professor Cody Schlenker has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) Program is a Foundation-wide program that “offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

Professor Schlenker’s program seeks to fundamentally understand how electronic dynamics at interfaces and within heterogeneous solids are controlled by molecular and mesoscale organization. By integrating synthetic chemistry and physical chemistry approaches—including contributions to mechanistic molecular photochemistry, solid-state photophysics, and interfacial electrochemistry—to explore fundamental principles and dynamics relevant to solar photocatalysis, the Schlenker group works to design new scalable materials and devices to meet global sustainable energy challenges.

Professor Schlenker’s NSF CAREER proposal, “CAREER: Time-Resolved Multi-Pulse Spectroscopy of Solvated Aza-Aromatics,” aims to understand the role of delocalized intermolecular excited states on the photochemical reactivity of solvated heterocyclic aromatics. His integration of time-resolved spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and synthetic chemistry approaches will foster critical understanding of the photochemistry of materials germane to renewable energy conversion and storage. The Schlenker group is working in a critical area at the intersection of several scientific and engineering fields to reveal transformative mechanistic insight into the photochemical reactivity of aza-aromatics relevant to materials design for low-cost, high-efficiency energy conversion and storage devices. In addition to the scientific goals, this project aims to leverage his program’s applicability to solar energy conversion and storage as a bridge to target new avenues for STEM education and public engagement. These efforts are aligned with the mission of the UW Clean Energy Institute, which endeavors to increase the scope and impact of research and education related to clean energy.

The UW Clean Energy Institute has additional coverage of this award.

For more information about this NSF CAREER Award, please visit the award website.

For more information about Professor Schlenker and his research, please visit his faculty page and research group website.

Share