GOALI Award for Interdisciplinary Team

Materials Science & Engineering professor Dr. Radenka Maric, in close collaboration with Industrial Advisory Board member Armand Halter and Dr. William Mustain, has received a prestigious $423,000 National Science Foundation GOALI award.

By Heike Brueckner

maric2Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) professor Dr. Radenka Maric, in close collaboration with MSE Industrial Advisory Board member Armand Halter and Dr. William Mustain (Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering), has received a prestigious, $423,000 National Science Foundation “Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry” (GOALI) award. 

The GOALI award seeks to promote collaboration between universities and industry by funding research projects that operate across this divide.  Such projects provide academic researchers and industry practitioners the opportunity to better understand and bridge their different approaches, and to more rapidly move research from the lab to commercial markets.

The team’s project is entitled “GOALI: One Step Direct Deposition of Durable Cathode for High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC).”  The importance of the proposed research lies in its position at the nexus of processing and microstructure with the activity, stability and utilization of catalysts using High Temperature Proton Exchange Membranes (HT-PEMFC).  

Dr. Maric, who will lead the project as principal investigator, is a Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Professor of Sustainable Energy at UConn.  Her research expertise lies in the area of novel materials for high temperature fuel cells, and she is the recipient of many prestigious awards. Dr. Maric was recently named a 2013 “Women of Innovation” Finalist in Research and Leadership by the Connecticut Technology Council. Read more about her research here.

Mr. Halter is the Vice President of Applied Sciences at Sonalysts, Inc., where his work includes the development of materials for alternative energy sources.  Dr. Mustain is Associate Department Head of CBE.