Abstract: My research is aimed at creating materials that will be the building blocks of economical, large-scale, clean energy technologies of the future. The key to creating effective energy conversion materials is controlling the flow of energy, matter and electricity at the nanoscale by careful design of the shape, size and composition of materials at the same scale. I am primarily interested in developing materials for cheap yet efficient solar cells that either generate electricity or directly generate chemical fuels. As an example, I will present semiconductor/liquid junction solar cells constructed on metal oxide nanowire scaffolds that achieved record photocurrents, and also new results on metal sulfide materials. Equally important is the development of methods for the rapid, economical synthesis of highly structured nanomaterials in quantities that match the scale of our energy problem. As an example, I will describe novel flame-synthesis methods for the bottom-up growth of arrays of single-crystal metal oxide nanowires and composites over large areas on electrically conductive substrates. Technologies like this may someday remove barriers to the practical implementation of nanotechnology in solar energy conversion devices.

Biographical Sketch: Pratap Rao is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He received his BS in 2007 from WPI and his PhD in 2013 from Stanford University. He has co-authored 27 peer-reviewed papers that have collectively been cited over 1,700 times. His work on materials for solar energy conversion and electrocatalysis is currently funded by the National Science Foundation and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. At WPI, he is the recipient of the Mechanical Engineering Excellence in Research Award and the James Nichols Heald Research Award.

Abstract: Research in the Simmons Lab works to understand the feedback loop between cell-level processes and tissue-level mechanics. We have developed our own characterization equipment to effectively compare excised tissues, synthetic hydrogels, and engineered constructs. With our custom tools and models, we are studying a novel animal, the African Spiny Mouse, that is capable of regenerating skin, cardiac muscle, and skeletal muscle without fibrosis, and we are attempting to recreate these regenerative processes in vitro. To study pancreatic cancer, we are using cells from patients to engineer tumors-in-a-dish that have the same mechanical properties of the original tumors for translational and clinical applications.

Biographical Sketch: Chelsey S. Simmons, Ph.D., joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida in Fall 2013, following a visiting research position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Her research lab investigates the relationship among cell biology and tissue mechanics, and their projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and American Heart Association. She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including BMES-CMBE’s Rising Star Award (2017) and ASME’s New Faces Award (2015). In addition to her engineering research and coursework, Simmons received a Ph.D. Minor in Education and is the PI of a $600k Research Experiences for Teachers Site. She teaches undergraduate Mechanics of Materials and graduate BioMEMS courses and received Teacher of the Year in 2017. Simmons received her B.S. cum laude from Harvard University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.