Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials (AMPM) Center welcomes Michael Hickner, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering at Penn State University as Visiting Professor. Prof. Hickner is planning of collaborating with the Center to deploy his home-made polymers for gas separation membranes.

"I am here studying gas separation because I want to know how our polymer chemistry skills can translate over to gas separation membranes and what Prof. Pinnau's, Prof. Eddaoudi's, and Prof. Yu Han's groups are doing with new materials. When I go back to Pennsylvania, I hope to integrate this new knowledge into our research", Hickner said during an interview.

An important goal of the visit is to build a long-term partnership between Penn State and the AMPM Center. "I hope there are more student exchanges including KAUST students coming to Penn State to build a long-term collaboration on polymer science, materials science, and membranes," he added.

Prof. Hickner gave an AMPM Center seminar – 'Membranes with Tethered Basic Groups'.  In his talk, he described new synthetic methods to tether organic bases to polymer backbones. "The primary target of these materials is anion exchange membranes for alternative energy technologies, batteries, and water purification applications, but some of the synthetic strategies could potentially be applied to gas separation membranes.  Control of the polymer backbone and pendant functional groups, nanophase morphology, and mechanical properties could lead to new generations of membrane materials for a variety of applications", he explained.

Michael Hickner received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).  He did postdoctoral research and staff work at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico. He joined Penn State University as Assistant Professor in 2007.  Prof. Michael Hickner's research and teaching interests include all aspects of polymeric materials, polymer micro- and nano-structure, transport characterization, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and new materials for energy applications.