Chemical engineering professor Chen is awarded Office of Naval Research grant
Xi Chen, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Grove School and with the Nanoscience Initiative at The Graduate Center’s Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), is the recipient of a $558,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to explore and develop better actuators using water-responsive materials. Chen’s proposed work will focus on gaining a fundamental understanding of the nanoscale water-responsive mechanisms that will lay the foundation for developing new hybrid and synthetic water-responsive materials for broad applications including evaporation-energy harvesting techniques pioneered by his team at the ASRC and CCNY.
“We’re excited that the U.S. Navy sees promise in our work,” said Chen. “This research will provide critical insight into how water in nanoscale structures could contribute to the development of bioinspired materials and devices. It’s a great start.”
Earlier this year, Chen received The Feliks Gross Award from the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences and Graduate Research Technology Initiative (GRTI) Equipment Funding from CCNY.
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