Fisher Faculty, Students Selected for Prestigious Research Grants

Fisher science students Shane Rickard, Erik Akselrod, and Jordan Walker, who are currently conducting research with Assistant Professor Dr. Alexey Ignatchenko, will go to the Oak Ridge National Lab this summer to conduct innovative research on energy related technologies of the future.

Rickard, a senior majoring in physics, was encouraged by Ignatchenko to apply for an independent Department of Energy’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship. He will study surface chemistry of perovskites in an ultra-high vacuum chamber at the Oak Ridge National Lab.

A highly prestigious award, the internship is given to just 10 students each year, selected from a national pool of applicants to work at each of the 17 national labs or facilities sponsored by the Department of Energy. The acceptance rate is close to one percent on average. Rickard said the experience will be very valuable as he progresses to graduate school in the fall. 

Ignatchenko, together with Akselrod and Walker, received a grant from the Department of Energy under the Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) to study Anatase TiO2 Alkaline Doping in collaboration with Dr. Aditya Savara, an Oak Ridge National Lab scientist.

Akselrod is majoring in biology and Walker is majoring in chemistry. The sophomores began working on research with Ignatchenko, which is related to their winning grant proposal, in fall 2018.

The Visiting Faculty Program (VFP), formerly called Faculty and Student Teams (FaST), seeks to increase the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in the research community in order to expand the workforce vital to the Department of Energy mission areas.