Sustainable Technology through Advanced Interdisciplinary Research (STAIR)

The STAIR program at the University of Tennessee is a new,interdisciplinary PhD program linking researchers in the following departments:

• Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE)
• Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
• Biochemical, Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB)
• Chemistry (Chem)
• Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

Sustainable Technology through Advanced Interdisciplinary Research (STAIR) is an NSF-funded IGERT program for graduate education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The STAIR program provides an opportunity for talented scientists and engineers to earn a PhD in one of three areas in sustainable energy including

• production of hydrogen through biological pathways, (research slides)
• discovery of nanoporous materials for hydrogen storage (research slides), and
• identifying structure/property relationships in hydrogen-based fuel cells (research slides).

Participants develop expertise in one of these three tasks and, through an integrated curriculum, become knowledgeable in the broad range of research challenges for sustainable energy. Moreover, participants are exposed to the many social constraints that impact new energy technologies. We are now accepting applications for PhD students who will begin their studies in the fall of 2010. Interested applicants should contact the Program Director, Dr. David Keffer (stair@utk.edu).

Links

• Recruiting Flyer describing STAIR opportunities
• Student support details (engineers) or (scientists)
• Advertisement as it appeared in Science on October 10, 2008
• Slides from UT Open House on October 23, 2008
• Other programs focusing on sustainability initiatives at the University of Tennessee Knoxville

Contact STAIR

419 Dougherty Engineering Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-2200
Phone: (865) 974-2421
Fax: (865) 974-7076
Email: stair@utk.edu

Support

The STAIR program is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program.