Columbia Engineering’s Paul Duby Research Award Goes to Graduating Senior Naiara Munich
The Paul Duby award recognizes a graduating senior who has actively engaged in research within the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center and has plans for a career in clean energy technologies.
Naiara Munich, a Barnard College senior who is graduating with a degree in chemistry and a concentration in chemical engineering, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Paul Duby Research Award in Electrochemistry. Munich plans to pursue a PhD in electrochemical energy systems.
The Paul Duby award recognizes a graduating senior who has actively engaged in research within the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center (CEEC) and has plans for a career in clean energy technologies. The award honors the late Columbia Engineering professor, a renowned expert in electrochemical systems and tireless advocate for students.
Munich is being honored for her highly productive time as an undergraduate researcher in the Marbella Lab where she contributed to multiple research projects into electrolyte and cathode performance for a range of battery chemistries. During her time in the Marbella Lab, Munich was supported by the Science Pathways Scholars Program (SP)2 and as part of Barnard’s Summer Research Institute (SRI).
Munich learned about the CEEC after joining the Marbella Lab, and says she immediately started to benefit from the center–working between labs, sharing expertise, and simply feeling connected to other research groups and students.
As a result of this research, Munich has co-authored two peer-reviewed publications. Both publications embody Munich’s experience with leading edge characterization methods–in situ NMR spectroscopy at Columbia to characterize electrolyte degradation, and XPEEM spectromicroscopy at the National Synchrotron Light Source II to spatially characterize changes to cathode surfaces during cycling. Her work in this realm was recognized by the Undergraduate Research Award from the Eastern Analytical Symposium, where she presented her results on potassium batteries in November 2022.
Munich says she is evenly divided on a future in academia or industry. But first up is pursuing a PhD at CalTech back in her hometown of Pasadena, California with the support of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Munich has already been laying the groundwork for a future of teaching with her continuous tutoring of high-school students and her peers–yet another aspect of Munich’s undergraduate work that would have been lauded by the late Professor Paul Duby and his family members who established the award.
Publications
May, R.: Hestenes, J. C.; Munich, N. A.; Marbella, L. E. Fluorinated Ether Decomposition in Localized High Concentration Electrolytes. Journal of Power Sources. 553, 232299 (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.232299.
Hestenes, J. C.; May, R.; Sadowski, J. T.; Munich, N. A.; Marbella, L. E. Resolving Chemical and Spatial Heterogeneities at Complex Electrochemical Interfaces in Li-ion Batteries. Chem. Mater. 34, 232-243 (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c03185.