Hendricks Energy Research Fellows Named

Graduate students Aaron Fisher (chemical and biomolecular engineering [ChBE]) and Parag Banerjee (materials science and engineering [MSE]) are the first John and Maureen Hendricks Energy Research Fellows.

Banerjee works in the Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing, where he focuses on energy harvesting and energy storage devices, including batteries, solar cells, supercapacitors and nano-fabrication. His fellowship will support a new energy-related research direction he has proposed.

Fisher’s fellowship will support research that he and Fischell Department of Bioengineering professor Peter Kofinas, who nominated Fisher for the honor, have proposed on nanostructured polymer electrolytes. The work is to be carried out in Kofinas's Functional Macromolecular Laboratory.

The fellowship program, currently in its first year, was established by the John and Maureen Hendricks Charitable Foundation to support the efforts of the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC), a multidisciplinary initiative that focuses on advancing the frontiers of energy science and technology, particularly forward-looking approaches to alternative energy generation and storage.

The fellowship funds are part of a major contribution to the University's Great Expectations capital campaign. Of its $1 million contribution to the University System of Maryland, the John and Maureen Hendricks Charitable Foundation pledged $450,000 to UMERC. John Hendricks, chairman and founder of Discovery Communications, is a member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees.

Published November 20, 2008