KM Lab, led by Assistant Professor of Engineering Kausik Mukhopadhyay, Lichtenberg has focused on a breakthrough approach that uses a naturally occurring protein, lanmoudulin./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cThe protein can capture rare earth elements from dilute waste streams, and then a small temperature change can trigger the protein to release them so they can be collected,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d she says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cThis could create a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly way to recover valuable materials./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
Those materials are critical to everything from renewable energy systems to manufacturing; however, traditional extraction methods rely heavily on large amounts of energy and chemicals sourced from acid mine drainage, coal byproducts and electronic waste./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
Lichtenberg/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2019s work points to a sustainable future./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cBy developing protein-based systems that selectively capture and release these elements, we could potentially reduce the reliance on traditional extraction,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d she says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lichtenberg will take that work further, designing modified proteins, producing them in the lab and testing how effectively they bind and release rare earth elements./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cIt is a very exciting interdisciplinary project that combines protein engineering, materials science and sustainability,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d she says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cI hope to continue this research after the internship ends./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
It Takes a Lab /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2014 and a Team/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n But just as impactful as the research has been, the environment that/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2019s shaped it has been./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cDr. Mukhopadhyay is a fantastic mentor who creates a very supportive and positive environment that encourages learning [both] in and out of the lab,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d Lichtenberg says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201cThe graduate students in the lab have [also] played a huge role in /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2026 helping me learn new techniques and [understand] the experiments and science itself./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
Next, she plans to continue her journey as a Knight by pursuing a doctoral degree at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½, advancing her research as a graduate member of the KM Lab./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
For Lichtenberg, this internship isn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2019t the finish line /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2014 it/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2019s just the beginning of reimagining how the world sources its most essential materials./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dene/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u00e9 Lichtenberg is advancing new methods for recovering rare earth metals /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2014 groundbreaking work she/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/u2019ll continue at Los Alamos National Laboratory./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":152373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,23,24,27],"tags":[973,16611,1566,54321,13797,54510,4951],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-152212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-research","category-science-technology","category-student-life","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-department-of-materials-science-and-engineering","tag-engineering","tag-kausik-mukhopadhyay","tag-materials-science-and-engineering","tag-student-sucess","tag-undergraduate-research"],"yoast_head":"/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/152212/n
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