CESI-Corning Graduate Fellowship winner: Rileigh Casebolt

The CESI-Corning Graduate Fellowship is a multi-year award designed to support the best and brightest young researchers in energy science, engineering, and materials. Preference is given to second year Ph.D. students working with CESI affiliated faculty on research that intersects with at least two of the three areas in Corning's strategic research portfolio: Core Technologies, Manufacturing, Engineering Platforms, and Market-Access Platforms. Corning fellows participate in a paid summer internship at a nearby Corning facility each year that they receive the award. The fellow is guided by a scientific mentor at Corning, and a Cornell faculty advisor. The 2020 CESI-Corning Graduate Fellowship winner is Rileigh Casebolt, Ph.D. candidate in the Hanrath research group.

Rileigh’s research consists of coating Corning’s porous ceramic substrates with a catalyst to create gas diffusion electrodes for use in electrochemical CO2 reduction. She will test the electrodes in flow cell devices under pulsed potentials. Corning is well-known for their materials precision and processing. As part of their environmental technology efforts, Corning has developed porous ceramic substrates and filters to be used in catalytic converters to help automakers meet air pollution regulations. Rileigh expects utilizing Corning's porous substrates to make gas diffusion electrodes under pulsed potential conditions will dramatically improve the current densities, catalyst lifetime, and product selectivity at commercially relevant conditions for electrochemical CO2 reduction.

Rileigh is originally from Aurora, Colorado. She received her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania which led her to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Cornell. She decided to apply for the CESI-Corning Graduate Fellowship believing that it’s a great opportunity to collaborate with experts in materials science and engineering. Additionally, the fellowship will allow her to help develop innovative technologies that could potentially revolutionize energy systems, while working alongside mentors at Corning to gain valuable industry experience.