Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering Graduate seminar series Dr. Meenesh Singh Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California "A Journey through Crystal Forests" Thursday, April 24, 2014 9:00-10:20 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 8:30 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: Crystalline materials can exist in variety of shapes spanning a spectrum of physicochemical properties. Forests of crystal morphologies often appear in different applications. This talk will briefly cover the identification of such forests for different crystalline materials, providing directions for targeted synthesis of desired crystal shapes and novel experiments to measure crystal morphologies and face-specific growth rates. Bio: Dr. Meenesh R. Singh, Postdoctoral Scholar in the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, obtained his B.E (Chemical Engg.) degree from Sardar Patel University in 2005, M.Tech (Chemical Engg.) degree from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2008 and Ph.D (Chemical Engg.) from Purdue University in 2013. At JCAP, he is working on artificial photosynthesis for solar fuels under the supervision of Prof. Nathan S. Lewis (Caltech), Prof. Rachel Segalman (UC Berkeley), Dr. Adam Weber (LBL) and Prof. John S. Newman (UC Berkeley). His doctoral research was under the guidance of Prof. Doraiswami Ramkrishna, where he studied shape evolution of crystals. This work is recognized by multiple awards such as i) AIChE process development division student paper award, ii) AIChE separation division graduate student research award, iii) Outstanding graduate student research award, and iv) McDonnell Douglas Fellowship. His research interests lie in the area of healthcare and renewable energy. Currently, he is working towards the development of i) efficient photoelectrochemical devices for solar to liquid fuel production and ii) computational tools to predict polymorphs and morphologies of crystalline materials.