John M. Vohs, Carl V. S. Patterson Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and one of VIPER's co-faculty directors, has been named the recipient of the 2013-14 George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research. Read more here.

Prof. Andrew M. Rappe, one of VIPER's co-faculty directors, along with other researchers at Penn and Drexel demonstrate a new paradigm for solar cell construction. Read more here.

Read more about VIPER student research in the Red & Blue on College Greeen October newsletter here.

VIPER program sees success, looks to expand

Penn researchers, Prof. Dawn Bonell (Penn’s vice provost for research and Trustee Professor of Materials Science and Engineering) and doctoral student David Conklin, recently published a paper in the journal ACS Nano that demonstrates a new mechanism for extracting energy from light, which could improve solar energy harvesting and optoelectronic devices. Read more here.

Read more about Penn's energy efficient cooling system here.

Researchers from Penn and two other institutions recently published a paper in Science in which they detail rate measurements on samples in which the length of the ceria(CeO2)-metal interface is tailored by the use of nanocrystals, demonstrating that CO oxidation in ceria-based catalysts is greatly enhanced at the ceria-metal interface.

Mark G. Allen, a pioneer in the field of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) is named Scientific Director of Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology. Read more here.