Research Highlights
Research Highlights

Hemp-based composite could facilitate soil-free farming

Nebraska chemist Barry Cheung and his colleagues recently introduced an approach that chemically couples a structure-granting component of hemp fibers, lignin, with “linking molecules” that fortify the resulting biocomposite. The team proceeded to grow both Daikon radishes and green peas from the biocomposite, a promising sign for its potential as a viable, eco-friendly growth medium.
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Soil Free Growth By Cheung Group
Professor James Checco

Checco earns NIH research award

James Checco and his research group earned a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

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New technique acts as accelerator, brake for microscopic droplets

Professor Stephen Morin and doctoral candidate Ali Mazaltarim have demonstrated unprecedented control over the movement of liquid droplets on flat surfaces. That control could make the technique useful in self-cleaning materials, water harvesting and other applications. Their research has been published in Nature Communications.

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A microscopic droplet of water being deposited onto an elastic silicone film. By stretching and relaxing their specially designed films, Nebraska chemists Stephen Morin and Ali Mazaltarim have demonstrated unprecedented control over the movement of liquid droplets on flat surfaces. That control could make the technique useful in self-cleaning materials, water harvesting and other applications.r
bdelghani Laraoui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Nebraska; Jonathan Wrubel, associate professor of physics at Creighton University; Xia Hong, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Nebraska; Christian Binek, Charles Bessey Professor of physics at Nebraska and EQUATE scientific director; Rebecca Lai, associate professor of chemistry at Nebraska and EQUATE associate director; and Matt Andrews, Nebraska EPSCoR director and EQUATE principal investigator.

NU receives $20 million grant to advance quantum research, education

The University of Nebraska has received a five-year, $20 million award from the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to create a research and education cluster aimed at enhancing the state’s competitiveness in the field of emergent quantum materials and technologies, and boosting the participating institutions’ research and education capacity.

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