Penn Chemistry Graduate Student Wins STLE Scholarship
Renai Chen, a second-year chemistry graduate student working with Penn Chemistry Professor Abraham Nitzan, is applying quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics methodologies to study the theoretical mechanisms in electronic and thermal energy transport in molecular junctions and at molecular-metal interfaces. This is an interdisciplinary project combining chemistry and materials engineering tools to analyze how friction effects energy relaxation rates. Chen’s work has identified a new mechanism for heat transfer in systems where electron hopping between molecular sites is the dominant mode of charge transport.
This work will allow engineers to maximize the efficiency of molecular circuits that utilize heat and electric currents to perform logical operations.
The Philadelphia Section of the STLE is pleased to award a $1,000 scholarship to Renai Chen.