Dr. Xiao Receives DoD instrument funding Dr. Xiao Receives DoD instrument funding A team led by Dr. Yuzhe Xiao, Assistant Professor of Physics, has been awarded a $258,000 grant from the FY 2024 Department of Defense (DoD) Research and Education Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) Equipment/Instrumentation Program. Dr. Xiao serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) with co-PIs Dr. Yuankun Lin (Physics), Dr. Jens Neu (Physics), Dr. Jeffry Kelber (Chemistry), and Dr. Melanie Ecker (Biomedical Engineering). Dr. Rebekah Purvis (Physics) is senior personnel on the proposal. The team's winning proposal, titled "Understanding Infrared Materials with Optical Ellipsometry," secures funding to purchase an infrared variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer. This advanced instrumentation will significantly enhance the team's ability to characterize and understand the optical properties of infrared materials. Congratulations to Dr. Xiao and the team on this significant achievement! Dr. Xiao Receives Prestigious NSF LEAPS-MPS Award Dr. Xiao Receives Prestigious NSF LEAPS-MPS Award Dr. Yuzhe Xiao, Assistant Professor of Physics, has been honored with the prestigious Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) award by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The LEAPS-MPS program is designed to help launch the careers of pre-tenured faculty in the fields of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS). This award supports MPS principal investigators by providing funding that enables them to submit subsequent successful proposals to traditional NSF funding opportunities, such as individual investigator programs and CAREER competitions. Dr. Xiao will receive $ 250,000 funding support and his winning proposal, titled "LEAPS-MPS: Light-Matter-Heat Interactions with Ultrafast Thermal-Radiation Spectroscopy," aims to enhance our understanding of radiation from non-thermal hot carriers following ultrafast laser excitation. Congratulations to Dr. Xiao on this remarkable achievement! Congratulations to Mari Salinas for receiving the Eagles to the Moon Scholarship! Congratulations to Mari Salinas for receiving the Eagles to the Moon Scholarship! Physics Student receives NASA scholarship! The Eagles to the Moon scholarship is sponsored by NASA Artemis and awarded to two outstanding STEM students at UNT, this year to Lucas Wilhoyt, Mechanical Engineering (COE) and Mari Salinas, Physics (COS). Mari is a sophomore in our department and an undergraduate researcher in the Ultrafast and THz Laboratory. Congratulations to both students for this great achievement! Graduate Research Spotlight: Harum Ahmed Graduate Research Spotlight: Harum Ahmed Congratulations to Harum Ahmed (Grad Student) for being interviewed by the College of Science in a research spotlight on Monday, February 5th! Harum's research is centered around active galactic nuclei and quasars, luminous active galaxies with accreting supermassive black holes in their centers. Through her research, Harum intends to contribute to the creation of the ultimate benchmark sample of quasars with rest-frame UV-optical spectral properties. Dr. Yuanxi Wang awarded ACS-PRF Grant! Dr. Yuanxi Wang awarded ACS-PRF Grant! Yuanxi Wang's project, "Trends in Hydrodesulfurization Activity: Towards Realistic Surfaces and Reaction Models", has received funding from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator program. Hydrodesulfurization refers to the process of removing sulfur from petroleum feedstocks. This project will support theory modeling efforts on quantifying catalytic sulfur removal processes using atomistic reaction models. ACS-PRF selected Dr. Jens Neu’s research for funding ACS-PRF selected Dr. Jens Neu’s research for funding The American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Found, selected Jens Neu's work for funding. Every oil deposit is associated with petroleum gasses (APG). These APG are often too sparse for commercial exploitation making them an unwanted by-product of oil extraction. The simplest way to handle APG is to flare it, which accounts for about 1 % of the world CO2 production. The research in the Ultrafast THz Spectroscopy will explorer novel materials, especially metal-organic frameworks (MOF), to capture APG instead of flaring it. This research will understand the basic physics of gas-MOF interaction. This insight can then be leveraged to improve APG capturing. Capturing and utilizing of these gasses will reduce the environmental harm of flaring and also make this valuable resource usable.
University of North Texas 
The American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Found, selected Jens Neu's work
for funding. Every oil deposit is associated with petroleum gasses (APG). These APG
are often too sparse for commercial exploitation making them an unwanted by-product
of oil extraction. The simplest way to handle APG is to flare it, which accounts for
about 1 % of the world CO2 production.