Dr. Romesh Kumar
Chemical Engineer

Dr. Kumar grew up in Rajpura, a small town in the northern Indian state of Punjab and attended high school in a nearby city. After high school, hecontinued his schooling at Panjab University, a public university in the state capital, Chandigarh, where he graduated with Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Kumar came to the U.S. to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained an M.S. and then a Ph.D., both in Chemical Engineering. His graduate research was in the area of food processing, such as the making of freeze-dried coffee or other freeze-dried foods that can have a long shelf life without the need for refrigeration.

"I started at Argonne in May 1972 as a Post-Doctoral Appointee. My first assignment was in the research area of the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors for power generation, the breeder reactor. My specific project was to develop a computer model of the production, distribution, and release of tritium (a radioactive isotope of hydrogen) from breeder reactors. Another early assignment was to model the behavior of the reactor core materials in the event of a core meltdown accident, where the core materials would penetrate the ground, melting the underlying soil and rock, the so-called China Syndrome."

Dr. Kumar and his team are currently working to develop fuel cells as clean, efficient devices to convert fuel energy into electricity to run cars, homes, and factories.

"We analyze fuel cell power generation systems, as well as work on developing improved materials to make the fuel cells cheaper and more durable. We are also looking at ways to generate hydrogen to power fuel cells. "

Hydrogen-powered fuel cells can lead to zero-emission cars that can greatly improve the urban environments. Such cars also have electric drive, which can offer fast acceleration. Residential fuel cells can provide electricity and heat or hot water for the home, with a much reduced probability of power outages due to ice storms, tornados, or other weather-related events.

Dr. Kumar and his wife live in Naperville, a western suburb of Chicago. They have two grown children. Their son (age 26) is an agent in Hollywood; and their daughter (age 24) is a math teacher in the Naperville North High School. Recently, Dr. Kumar served on the Executive Committee of their Homeowners' Association. He and his wife just returned from a 3-week visit to India

Some key words in his work--

Fuel Cells,
Systems,
Modeling (computer modeling),
Hydrocarbon Fuels (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, natural gas, propane),
Hydrogen

Dr. Razima Souleimanova
Chemical Engineer

Dr. Souleimanov grew up and went to public school in the town of Sterlitamak, about 1,000 miles from Moscow in Russia.

"I got interested [in science] because I [had] a very nice, good chemistry teacher- I liked her and chemistry very much and started spend time with her and other students after school-- doing all these very cool experiments on chemistry. My older sister is a chemist. My dad also was working on oil drilling- and thought about oil as a very rich natural resource. I was lucky to have these people around me.

After graduating from high school, Dr. Souleimanova attended the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology where she obtained a Masters degree in chemical technology, and then came to Notre Dame in U.S., for her Ph.D. degree.

"I started to work in ANL in October, 2002. My first job is my current job: development of WGS [water gas shift] catalyst for fuel processing. Success in my and my colleagues' work will lead to development of fuel cell powered cars, and hence, independence from oil…."

In order to use hydrocarbon based fuels with fuel cells, the hydrocarbons are converted (reformed) to a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases. WGS catalysts convert the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and increase the hydrogen content of the resulting gases. (CO + H2O -> CO2+ H2)

Fuel cell,
autothermal reforming approach,
reaction mechanism,
activity and stability of catalysts.

Dr. Xiaoping Wang
Chemist

Dr. Wang grew up in a small town close to Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province, in mainland China. She obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from Nanjing University, before coming to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Chemistry, at North Carolina State University.

Dr. Wang arrived at Argonne in 1997, as a postdoc.

"The work I was involving in was to develop solid oxide fuel cell cathode materials. My current job is to develop non-precious metal cathode materials for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs).

If successful, these new materials could significantly reduce the cost of PEFCs technologies and speed-up commercialization of these cells, leading to earlier production of fuel cell powered cars for us all. These cars would be significantly more efficient, and more environmental-friendly than current cars.

Dr. Wang's husband is also a scientist working in a chemical company. They have triplet sons, now almost three years-old, who attend the Argonne child educational center. Dr. Wang enjoys taking care of her family after work, and loves classical music

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells,
cathode,
oxygen reduction,
potentiostat

Dr. J. David Carter
Materials Scientist

Dr. Carter grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where as a teenager, he worked with his family in home building and construction. He attended college at the University of Utah, receiving a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, before becoming a graduate student at the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he earned Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Ceramic Engineering.

After earning his Ph.D., Dr. Carter moved his family to Denmark for two years and worked at Risoe National Laboratory as a visiting scientist on Fuel Cells.

"I arrived at Argonne in October 1994 and worked on developing solid oxide fuel cells. Currently I am developing the TuffCell, which is a solid oxide fuel cell that is a monolithic unit made of layers of ceramic, and metals. This could lead to fuel cells for portable electric power generators that are quiet, fuel efficient and run cleaner than a conventional electricity generator."

Dr. Carter and his wife have 8 boys. He does a lot with his family, including Boy Scouts, cycling, and camping. He enjoys working on genealogy, and is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC),
oxide ion conductors,
electric power generation,
ceramic engineering,
powder metallurgy,
materials science

Eugene Williams is a graduate of Jackson State University with a dual Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics. He also holds a Masters of Science in mathematics from University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in Business Administration from New York University. His experience spans back to being a systems analyst with Eastman Kodak and through consulting assignments in Canada, France, England, Japan and Chicago as an independent consultant. Williams is currently a senior systems analyst at Argonne National Laboratory working with web technology and relational databases for various business units.