On Wednesday June 17 2015 JMU hosted the
Workshop entitled “Infrared Radiation,
Thermoelectricity and Chaos”. Dr. Giovanna
Scarel was the co-organizer with Benjamin Delp, Director of JMU Research
Development and Promotion. The Workshop discussed
Dr. Scarel’s infrared power generation and featured two international
speakers. Prof. Giulio Casati of Italy spoke
about Conservation laws, symmetry
breaking and control of the heat current.
Prof. Francisco Javier Gonzalez Contreras of México
described Seebeck nanoantennas for solar
energy harvesting. Three speakers
represented the U.S.A. academic world. Prof.
Gabriel A. Rincón-Mora of the Georgia
Institute of Technology, presented Microwatt CMOS
harvesters. Prof. Rajeevan Amirtharajah of the University
of California at Davis, discussed on Powering
systems from ambient energy sources.
Finally, Prof. S. Joseph Poon of the University of Virginia, presented Practical realization
of ZT>1 from the materials perspective. The business and entrepreneurial world was
represented by Dr. Ronald J. Parise of Parise Research Technologies, who
introduced The Nighttime solar cell®: infrared energy to deep
space. Dr. Joseph R. Blandino of the
Virginia Military Institute, and Dr. David J. Lawrence of James Madison
University, presented a poster on Transient
response of a thermoelectric generator subjected to spatially non-uniform
heating: implications for heat and IR sensing applications. In her presentation Dr. Scarel explained the
connection among the words in the title of the Workshop.
Two posters were presented by JMU
Physics students Graham Gearhart and Brian Lang. Graham presented “Infrared source and thermoelectric device trends in infrared power
generation”, while Brian discussed: “The interaction between current and infrared
radiation”. Graham and Brian are
part of the Scarel’s research group.
Other JMU students joined the event asking questions and networking.
Dr.
Brian Utter (Physics, JMU) and Lynn Petersen (U.S. Office of Naval Research)
chaired the morning and the afternoon sessions.
Dr. Yvonne Harris, vice Provost for Research and Scholarship, and Lynn
Petersen opened the event in the morning and addressed the final remarks in the
afternoon, respectively.
The
Workshop was funded by the U.S. Office
of Naval Research, the 4-VA Consortium, JMU, and The Madison
Trust—Fostering Innovation and Strategic Philanthropy.
The
picture below shows a moment of the event.
