Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate student Swapnil Dattatray Deshmukh recently won the Best Student Presentation Award at the IEEE 2020 Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC) in the Area 2: Chalcogenide Thin Film Solar Cells Division. His presentation, Investigating the Potential of Amine-Thiol Solvent System for High-Efficiency CuInSe₂ Devices, was given online due to travel restrictions from the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Purdue University and United Kingdom-based Cranfield University are offering a dual master's degree in defense engineering and technology with a specialization in expeditionary warfare, or the deployment of a country's military forces to fight abroad. The program was fully approved in February by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Professor Steve Beaudoin is academic director of the dual Master of Science program and director of the Purdue Energetics Research Center.

Dr. Vilas Pol, Associate Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, is leading research in the Purdue ViPER (Vilas Pol Energy Research) lab that focuses on using sodium-ion batteries as an environmentally friendly energy source, taking advantage of sodium's low cost and natural abundance. The use of sodium-ion batteries as an electrochemical storage device stands out for its cost advantage over lithium due to the widespread geographical distribution of sodium in the Earth’s crust and seawater.

Every time a gun fires, lead leaches into the air. A scientific advancement could provide a comparable replacement for lead-based explosive materials found in ammunition, protecting soldiers and the environment from potential toxic effects. Researchers at Purdue Energetics Research Center (PERC), directed by Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Professor Steve Beaudoin, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory, developed two new lead-free materials that function as primary explosives, which are used to ignite powder inside a gun cartridge.

Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate student Radhakrishna Tumbalam Gooty is the recipient of the 2020 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Separation Division Graduate Student Research Award in the Distillation and Absorption Division. Tumbalam Gooty will receive a plaque and cash prize during the planned Separations Division Awards Banquet on Monday, November 16 at the 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco, or via a remote presentation if necessary due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.