“Multiscale Modeling and Simulation of Nanocrystalline Zirconium Oxide,” Phd Dissertation Defense by Chaojun Wang. Advisor: Dr. Ruqiang Feng. On Monday, April 20, 2009 at 10:30 AM in 105 Othmer Hall. The public is welcome.

Dr. Richard J. Komp will review the development of a hybrid solar electric and water collector from three different countries. He will discuss the basic principles of solar electricity, differences in substrate materials, test results of solar electric cells, performance chart data (F-Charts) for rating solar thermal collectors, and applications for third world countries in water pumping, lighting and communications. Dr. Richard Komp has had a deep career in the academic and research worlds. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Wayne State University in Michigan and later was an associate professor at Kentucky University. He also has been an adjunct or visiting professor at several other universities, including currently the national engineering university (UNI -- Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería) in Managua, Nicaragua where he spends 2-3 months per year. Earlier in his career he conducted extensive research at Xerox’s Materials Research Laboratory, resulting in about a dozen patents on such things as nanoparticle photoreceptors. Komp lives in an off-the-grid solar house that he built himself far “down east” in Jonesport, Maine (the only place a solar scientist could afford coastal real estate). The house is decked out with many of the technologies he has taught in workshops, including photovoltaics, solar thermal hot water (via his “hybrid” system), and rain water catchments. His workshops have included such themes as: PV module assembly and solar micro-drip irrigation. He has pioneered PV as a “cottage industry” in Nicaragua, Mali, and Haiti (and soon Jamaica and Rwanda), making use of cells that are rejected by major manufacturers to do low-tech assembly of PV panels. Currently groups in these countries are assembling dozens of panels per year for a total of over 10 kilowatts per year.