HUNTSVILLE – Dr. Yu Lei, associate professor and interim chair in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, has been named a Fulbright U.S. Scholar.
He will travel to Prague, Czech Republic, in January to continue his research into developing catalysts at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Czech Academy of Science. He has taught at UAH since 2013.
“I’m very excited, looking forward to visiting there,” Lei said. “I can be doing research for the Fulbright scholarship, doing my sabbatical, and be an ambassador all at the same time, connecting with people in different countries.
“My research is to develop new catalysts using atomic layer deposition.”
This process is essential for the high-tech devices that drive modern life.
“ALD is a three-dimensional thin film deposition technique that plays an important role in
microelectronics manufacturing, in producing items such as central processing units,
memory and hard drives,” he said. “ALD offers exceptional control of nanometer features while depositing materials uniformly on large silicon wafers for high volume manufacturing.
“It is a key technique to produce powerful and small smart devices.”
Lei said he would like to see his UAH students benefit from studying abroad. He sees his
Fulbright award as a chance to promote such opportunities.
“One of the goals when I applied was to improve my research expertise,” he said. “One thing that could help would be to possibly establish an exchange program.”
Lei is the third Fulbright Scholar from UAH in the past three years. According to the
Fulbright Scholar Directory at fulbrightscholars.org, he is UAH’s 20th faculty member to
become a Fulbrighter, the first being H.E. Francis in 1970-71.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Lei said. “I hope to be able to live up to the high standards of achievement of the Fulbrighters, and I also hope to improve the outlook between Americans and citizens of the Czech Republic.”
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