Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus, assistant professor and the William and Ruth Neely Faculty Fellow in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded the 2014 KANEKA Junior Faculty Scholarship for her excellence in research. The President of Kaneka Americas Holding, Shinji Mizusawa, awarded the scholarship to Lutkenhaus at the Polymer Technology Industrial Consortium meeting in April.
Lutkenhaus joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 2010, and her research interests focus on designing organic thin films and nanostructures to enable the development of novel organic energy systems and smart coatings. Areas of investigation include learning how polymer thin films behave in confinement; fabrication of polymer nanowires and nanotubules; polyelectrolytes and layer-by-layer assembly; designing lithium-ion battery electrode and electrolyte materials; and understanding electrochemical processes within these materials.
The Kaneka Americas Holding Scholarship fund was established to provide scholarship and award funding to promote and support material science related research activities for students and faculty at Texas A&M University. The scholarships are set to continue until 2016 (with possibility for continuation), and are awarded to junior faculty, exchange students/visiting scholars, graduating Ph.D. students, graduate students, and undergraduate students who conduct research in material science or organic chemistry fields, or take at least a material science and engineering course for undergraduate students.