Prof. Jonas Baltrusaitis of Lehigh's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department (ChBE) traveled to Tokyo and Australia to visit fellow research collaborators. While in Tokyo, he met with Prof. Tomohiro Nozaki, who is an Eng., Professor in the Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where they discussed their mutual efforts in sustainable hydrocarbon feedstock conversion including dry reforming of methane as well as carbon nanotube synthesis using cold plasma reactors.
Next stop - Australia. At the University of Adelaide, Prof. Baltrusaitis attended a symposium on phosphorus environmental cycling with the colleagues from USA USDA. The symposium concluded with an outdoor adventure, touring the Murray River basin and discussing problems arising in arid climates due to the water shortage. He was joined by Prof. Michael Mclaughlin, who is a Research Professor with the School of Agriculture Food and Wine at The University of Adelaide, and inviited to tour their labs focusing on industrial developments related to conventional and green fertilizer synthesis. This allowed to conceptualize new project ideas and collaborative projects on sustainable design related to hydrocarbon and nutrient cycling. "It's important to be able to share our research beyond the classroom and colloaborate outside the Lehigh Valley. It not only strengthens these relationships but also advances research initiatives when we work together."
