With the help of her professors, Eastern Connecticut State University student Connor Morrison, a senior from Coventry, designed her own major in sustainable energy. Four years later, her creativity, commitment and academic drive are paying off with big dividends: Her undergraduate work on a NASA-funded fuel cell research project is giving her the experience to achieve her ultimate goal of making sustainable energy more viable in the future.
In spring 2010, Connor was awarded an undergraduate fellowship from the Connecticut Space Grant College Consortium, (CSGCC), a member of the NASA-funded national Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. CSGCC promotes and supports aeronautic-and space-related research in Connecticut.
Connor’s research project involves the synthesis of new aerogels that will be used to make super-capacitors, which have the potential of replacing batteries as energy storage devices. She is conducting her research under the guidance of Eastern Professor Alevtina Smirnova, who teaches sustainable energy science in the Environmental Earth Sciences Department. Professor Smirnova is a leading research scientist in a rapidly developing field that uses nanotechnology to develop fuel cells, solar cells and high-density storage devices.
