Department of Nuclear Engineering

Congratulations to Nicholas Sponsel! – His paper was selected as an Editor’s Pick

Nick’s first first-author paper got published September 29, 2022 as part of the Special Topic Collection on Atmospheric Plasma-Liquid Interfaces in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A (JVST A). The paper was selected as an Editor’s Pick! You can read the article here: https://avs.scitation.org/doi/10.1116/6.0001990

Katharina Stapelmann receives Early Career Award The International Society of Plasma Medicine honored Prof. Stapelmann with the Early Career Award for Plasma Medicine (ECAPM). The award was presented at the 9th International Conference on Plasma Medicine (ICPM) in Utrecht, The Netherlands. ECAPM recognizes outstanding work and significant contribution to the advancement in the field of plasma medicine by early-career researchers. It is typically awarded to an individual every two years during the international conference. The International Society for Plasma Medicine, founded in 2009, promotes scientific activities, including meetings, presentations, as well as educational and training activities.

11th IWM 2020 in Raleigh in 2022

• The “International Workshop on Microplasmas” (IWM) was held in Raleigh June 6 – 10, 2022.
  • Read more: www.iwm11.org

Watch our group members Duncan Trosan and Nicholas Sponsel in their IOPS oral presentation! 

• Ph.D. candidates Duncan Trosan and Nicholas Sponsel presented on the International Online Plasma Seminar (IOPS) their research on “Biomedical applications of flexible surface DBDs” and “Breakdown in bubbles in liquids”, respectively.
  • Read more: http://www.apsgec.org/main/iops.php

Congratulations to our recent graduate Dr. Brayden Myers! 

• Dr. Brayden Myers has graduated in December 2021 and will be taking a postdoctoral position at the Swiss Plasma Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. Best of luck Dr. Myers we are proud of you! 
  • Read more: https://www.ne.ncsu.edu/news/2021/brayden-myers-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation/

Our group members presented part of our research at the American Physical Society’s 2021 Gaseous Electronics Conference. Check out the abstracts below or presentation videos with your GEC registration. 

• Dr. Katharina Stapelmann presented on the plasma-liquid interaction III session on “In situ detection of atomic oxygen in liquids using TALIF”
  • Read more: https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/GEC21/Session/RR42.1

• Ph.D. candidate Duncan P. Trosan presented on the plasma for agriculture session on “High-Quality Manufacturing of Packaged Fresh Produce with Conformable In-Package Cold Atmospheric Plasma”
  • Read more: https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/GEC21/Session/GT53.1

• Ph.D. candidate María Herrera Quesada presented on the plasma-liquid interaction II session on “Exploring chemical modifications caused by the COST-Jet in an NO-rich gas admixture by means of FTIR and Mass Spectrometry on the simple biological model cysteine” 
  • Read more: https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/GEC21/Session/MR12.3

• Ph.D. candidate Nicholas L. Sponsel presented on the poster session on “Plasma Streamer Propagation Across Free-flowing Bubbles in Water”
  • Read more: https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/GEC21/Session/GT61.15

Contributing to the IOP Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics Special Issue “Emerging Leader 2021”

• Dr. Katharina Stapelmann and her team published an article as part of the “Emerging Leader” Special Issue of the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
  • The article reports on O and OH in He/O2 and He/H2O gas mixtures in the COST jet and follows those species from the gas phase through the liquid to a biological sample
  • Read more: Link to the article, Link to the Emerging Leaders Special Issue

Drs. Stapelmann and Brudno selected for the UNC Lineberger Innovation Award

• Drs. Katharina Stapelmann and Yevgeny Brudno were selected as recipients of the 2021-22 UNC Lineberger Innovation Award. Their project, “Non-Thermal Plasma Immunogenic Cell Death in Pancreatic Cancer Cells”, will investigate the cause-effect relationship between specific plasma-generated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and cellular responses related to immunogenic cell death.
  • Read more: https://www.ne.ncsu.edu/news/2021/stapelmann-brudno-selected-for-the-unc-lineberger-innovation-award/

Drs. Stapelmann and Bolotnov win National Science Foundation Award

• The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Dr. Katharina Stapelmann (PI) and Dr. Igor Bolotnov (co-PI) funds for their project “Plasma Breakdown and Instabilities in the Multiphase Plasma-Gas Bubble-Liquid System”, where they will study the interaction of air bubbles in water with atmospheric pressure plasma. Gas/liquid systems with steep property changes consisting of plasma, gas, and liquid, have incredible promise for various fields of applications ranging from water cleaning to agriculture applications and plasma-activated liquids for medical use. 
  • Read more: https://www.ne.ncsu.edu/news/2021/drs-stapelmann-and-bolotnov-win-national-science-foundation-award/

Plant Science meets Nuclear Engineering

• One of the Game-changing Research Incentive Programs GRIP4PSI was awarded to PI Stapelmann and co-PI’s. In the project “Harnessing (bio-) Electrochemical Technologies as Sustainable Sources for On-Demand Precision Agriculture”, she and her 11 collaborators from 9 departments at NCSU will explore plasma and bacteria to produce fertilizer on demand. Integrated in an irrigation system and driven by fiberoptic sensors in the soil, a “fertigation on demand” system for precision agriculture will be developed within the course of the 3.5 year project.
  • Read more: https://research.ncsu.edu/blog/2020/02/grip4psi-seed-grant/

IWPCT 2020, postponed to 2023, will be held in Raleigh

• The “International Workshop on Plasma for Cancer Treatment” (IWPCT) will be held in Raleigh in 2023.
  • Read more: www.iwpct2020.org