Materials Breakthroughs at UNLV - Dr. David Hatchett an January NevBio Mtg

Dr. David Hatchett will be speaking at the NevBio Luncheon on "Materials Breakthroughs at UNLV & Developing Technology-Based Businesses in Nevada” on Tuesday, January 25th at Lawry's Prime Rib. Cost is $30.

Technological breakthroughs in materials research are happening at UNLV. External funding provided by NSF and DOE have provided research funds and infrastructure at UNLV that have made these discoveries possible. The general public does not realize that a large part of a researcher’s job is to obtain external funds to perform research. These funds provide money to the university in terms of overhead minimizing the taxpayer support of the educational program.

Cost analysis of programs in the Sciences and engineering often show large offsets based on the external funding acquired for research. However, the public rarely hears about the funding or research success of faculty at UNLV.

For example, we have produced hydrogen storage materials that are superior to any material currently available and have been independently verified to be the best materials produced to date.

We have developed methods for electrochemically reprocessing and reclaiming useful actinide and radioisotopes that can be used in biological imaging applications. These are bench top methods that eliminate traditional methods that are either more dangerous or expensive.

This talk will present the materials research in Dr. Hatchett’s laboratory and the fundamental challenges associated with bringing the research and technology to market.

In addition, the importance of core groups of researchers that are required for technology development will be highlighted.

Finally the role of multidisciplinary research and the ability to solve complex problems will be examined. These issues must be part of any discussion when developing or attracting technology-based businesses in Nevada.

David Hatchett obtained his Ph.D. in Physical/Analytical Chemistry from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah in 1997 and is an Associate Professor of Environmental/Analytical Chemistry at UNLV.

His research interests are Biodiesel/NaSicon, Polymer-Metal Composites, Foams/materials characterization and Electrochemistry of Actinides and Lanthanides