Mines hosts international thermoelectrics school

Eric Toberer, assistant professor of physics at the Colorado School of Mines, organized a graduate student International Summer School on Thermoelectrics in July with Alexander Zevalkink, an assistant professor from Michigan State University.

This was the first summer school like this in the U.S. in the last 20 years.

Seventy-five students from around the world -- particularly the U.S., South Korea, India, Japan, Spain and Switzerland -- learned about a variety of topics, including practical module design, the physics of thermoelectric materials, and materials synthesis.

The featured speakers were scientists from Northwestern University, NREL, Duke University, Georgia Tech and Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

“Our objective was to provide an opportunity for students to develop new collaborations and to hear from leaders in the field about the current state of the art and fundamentals,” Toberer said. “Breakout discussions were a big part of this conference, largely as a forum to have graduate students interact with each other and gain insight from experts.”

CSM's Office of Technology Transfer and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory funded the summer school.