CEM Announces 2010 MJ Collins Award Winner

CEM Corporation announces the winner of the MJ Collins Award for Innovative Scientific Research Using Microwave Technology. Dilek K. Dogutan, PhD, a second-year post doctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was selected for her scientific ingenuity and innovation in the field of renewable energy.

Dr. Dogutan and her academic sponsor, Daniel G. Nocera, PhD, will share the $10,000 cash prize, which was presented to them by Michael J. Collins, PhD, president and CEO of CEM Corporation, on Friday, September 24, 2010 at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"We are very pleased to be presenting this year s award to Dilek Dogutan", said Michael J. Collins. "She exemplifies the scientific ingenuity and innovation that is going to be needed to move beyond the current dependence on traditional energy sources and into a new era of clean, renewable energy."

Dogutan s research focused on the design and synthesis of novel catalysts for solar energy storage and release that will contribute significantly to the development of a personalized solar energy system that has been the center of Dr. Nocera s research. Nocera s group has been dedicated to producing catalysts that can take solar energy and convert it into stored fuels. The focus has been an artificial photosynthesis, which takes solar light and water and converts it into oxygen and hydrogen. These are high energy fuels that can be released when the sun does not shine.

Since she joined Nocera s group, he says she has changed the landscape.
Dilek has taken catalysts that I thought could never even been made and delivered them to me, said Daniel Nocera. Compounds we tried to crystallize for years were never obtained, but Dilek, using CEM technology, made these compounds a reality. Because they are produced in such high yields, with minimal side-products, the catalysts are readily crystallized.

MIT has patented her discoveries and licensed them to ENI S.p.A., the fifth largest oil company in the world.
Dilek s scholarly approach to problems and her incredible work ethic have opened a new frontier in the study of energy conversion catalysis, said Daniel Nocera in his nomination letter. Her work represents the model of how research should be done.

Dr. Daniel Nocera is the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Nocera is well known for his pioneering work in renewable energy research. His work includes the mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry, proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET), and the development of optical sensors for profiling tumor metabolism. His research group recently accomplished artificial photosynthesis by using solar light to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, thus paving the way for the development of solar energy as a viable energy source.