Bier receives Graduate Research Fellowship
Imanuel Bier, MSE PhD candidate has received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
Imanuel Bier graduated from Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota with B.S. degrees in both Chemistry and Mathematics. As an undergraduate, he used computational fluid dynamics to study atmospheric particle growth. This work enabled the comparison of particle growth rates derived from experimental measurements with reaction energetics obtained from quantum chemistry calculations. For the summer of 2016, he received a fellowship to conduct analytical chemistry research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At NIST he was exposed to ongoing materials science and engineering (MSE) research. MSE provided the opportunity to combine his interests in quantum mechanical simulations with applied semiconductor research.
Since joining Professor Noa Marom's research group at Carnegie Mellon University, he has been using computers to study the electron mobilities of organic semiconductors. This research uses a combination of quantum mechanical simulations with machine learning methods to identify correlations between the structure of an organic semiconductor and its electronic properties. He hopes to extend these techniques to molecular interfaces, similar to those found in thin-film organic solar cells. This research could lead to the discovery and design of organic electronics with enhanced electronic properties.