STEM Shoutout: Kateryna Atyushkova

UNM professor researches hydrogen fuel cells

Associate professor in Biomedical Engineering Kateryna Atyushkova received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research to study the functions of hydrogen fuel cells at both the atomic and molecular levels.

The approximately $200,000 grant will form a partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source Facility. This facility has special instrumentation that will allow Atyushkova to better study the fuel cells.

“The structure of catalysts used as anode and cathode in fuel cells  will be studied under operant conditions simulating those of fuel cells,” Atyushkova said.

“The unique ambient pressure spectrometers available at the Advanced Light Source facility, part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will be used to probe the reaction occurring at the surface of electrodes in real time.”