Dr. Stephen Nonnenmann
Alumnus Stephen Nonnenmann (Ph.D. 2010, advisor: Jonathan Spanier) has accepted an appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the area of Materials Engineering, effective September 1, 2013.
Beginning in the fall, Stephen will form the Nanomaterials for Interface-Controlled Energy Laboratory (NICE), which focuses on the design, synthesis, and in-situ characterization of nanostructured materials for use in energy transduction technologies such as solid oxide fuel cell electrode assemblies and organic photovoltaics.
Stephen currently serves as a Nano/Bio Interface Center postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, under the guidance of Prof. Dawn A. Bonnell. His research focuses on clarifying the roles of interfacial phenomena and transfer mechanisms within energy-related materials via direct, localized scanning probe microscopy imaging methodologies under extreme operating conditions. This high-temperature scan probe approach enables the first direct imaging of bulk-mediated and surface-mediated charge transfer processes within SOFC membrane electrode assemblies.
During his doctoral studies at Drexel, Stephen worked in the MesoMaterials Laboratory on the synthesis and characterization of next-generation non-volatile memory elements which exploited nanoscale curvature to preserve functionality at finite length scales. For this, Stephen earned the “Best Doctoral Dissertation” in the category of Mathematical Sciences and Engineering. He had also received the NSF-IGERT and NSF GK-12 fellowships during his tenure in the department.