Stonybrook University doctoral student Shrish Patel wins national award

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A Stony Brook University doctoral candidate of Indian origin, Shrish Patel, recently won a national award for his research on using concrete waste for removing one of the most dangerous air pollutants, nitrogen dioxide.

Patel is in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook.

The award was received from the American Chemical Society (ACS), which is one of the world’s largest scientific societies. The ACS chose Patel’s research for its 2020 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry, in April, a press release from Stony Brook said.

According to the website for the award (acs.org), it recognizes graduate students who are working in areas related to environmental chemistry and is based on student transcripts and record of research productivity, as well as a letter of recommendation from the faculty advisor.

Patel’s PhD supervisor Alexander Orlov, a professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, quoted in the press release, described his student’s research as dealing with “one of the most critical issues of recycling and disposing of the most abundant material humanity uses by weight and volume.”

“His work on concrete being used as an inexpensive adsorbent for nitrogen and sulfur dioxides was mentioned in the international press,” Orlov said.

Patel adopted a novel approach that used demolished waste concrete to efficiently remove nitrogen dioxide from the simulated cement kiln stacks.

Then, his collaborators at Clarkson University used his samples to discover previously unknown anticorrosive properties of nitrogen dioxide exposed samples, the press release said.

Patel used advanced facilities at Brookhaven National Lab to understand fundamental aspects of concrete chemistry and to develop practical applications of his discovery, the press release said..

“Another remarkable fact about Shrish is his ability to develop a pathway from lab to market, especially in the clean energy field,” Orlov said.

Patel has received numerous awards in the past including first prize on the 2019 Stony Brook Entrepreneurship Challenge; and first prize in the 14^th Annual Columbia University Energy Symposium Venture Showcase, among others.

In 2020, he was selected to receive the R & D 100 award often called the ‘Oscar of Innovation’ a prestigious distinction rarely given to graduate students, Stony Brook said.