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The Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research (NCESR), chartered in 2006, supports innovative research and interdisciplinary collaboration by funding competitive “seed grants” for energy sciences research. About Us describes the mission, goal, vision, center organization and administration, including the Director, Associate Director, Executive Council and the External Advisory Committee. Contact Us gives the office address plus contact information for the Center’s staff. Use the Whittier Research Center Map or UNL’s Campus Maps to locate the NCESR office in Suite 230 of the Whittier Research Center, 2200 Vine Street, Lincoln, Nebraska.
NOW Accepting Applications for the NCESR 2026 Summer Undergraduate Internship Opportunity
The Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research (NCESR) is taking applications for the Energy Sciences Research – Summer Internships for Undergraduates. Up to eight internships are made possible through NCESR with support from Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). The Darrell J. Nelson Summer Undergraduate Internship in Energy Sciences Research is being offered for the thirteenth year in the amount up to $6,000 per recipient for the summer of 2026.
The application deadline is Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at 5:00 p.m., CT.
For additional information about the 2026 application requirements, click on the Instructions & Testimonials link below.
For a copy of the application form, click on the link below. It is a DocuSign form so the undergraduate student will need to sign in with their UNL ID and password.
https://go.unl.edu/ncesr 2026 summer undergrad internship application
Application Requirements:
The applicant must submit all required information in one package in the above DocuSign link. An application that does not follow the requirements will not be considered. The application requirements are as follows:
1. Application Form. Complete this form and attach the required information, sign and date.
2. Applicant Letter. Attach a one-page letter that: (a) describes you, your major and your interest in energy issues and energy sciences research; and (b) describes the research project and the tasks you will complete as part of the energy sciences research summer internship.
3. Faculty Letter. Attach a one-page letter from the faculty who agreed to sponsor your application for the energy sciences research summer internship, if selected. The faculty sponsor needs to explain why they think you should be selected for the internship.
4. Transcript. Attach an unofficial transcript.
To learn more about previous NCESR summer undergraduate internship projects, go to Undergraduate Summer Internship Posters
If you have any questions, please contact Sue Wesely at swesely4@unl.edu or Brenda Coufal at brenda.coufal@unl.edu.
Momentum in motion: Cycle 19 research highlights this year
Five new research projects funded by the Energy Center started on January 1, 2025. NCESR’s overall goal is to foster research and education in energy sciences by providing funding to support innovative research and collaboration among UNL faculty and other public and private-sector organizations and businesses. The principal investigators with the NCESR Cycle 19 seed research grants will present project updates to the NCESR Progress Review Committee on October 15, 2025, which will determine the Cycle 19 projects that will receive Year 2 funding.
Project Title: Enhanced CO2 transport for high-efficiency biological carbon capture and biofuel fermentation
Principal Investigator (PI) – Dr. Nicole Buan, Professor
UNL Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) – Dr. Siamak Nejati, Associate Professor
UNL Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering
Transitioning to a sustainable bioeconomy requires converting up to one billion tons of captured and waste carbon into biofuels each year. Methanosarcina is a promising microbial platform that can be engineered to generate renewable methane and bioisoprene fuels from CO2 and waste carbon at low cost at industrial scale. This project aims to design novel enzymes, bioreactors, and Methanosarcina cells to optimize CO2 conversion selectivity to biogas and bioisoprene, a high-value chemical that can be converted to jet fuel or synthetic rubber. Computational modeling and high-throughput enzyme engineering will be used to design and select for novel enzymes that can be used to enhance carbon capture and biofuels synthesis. Plasmids containing modified enzymes have been synthesized and mutant library validation and screening are in process. Engineered cells and biocatalysts will be embedded into soft materials to design and develop robust gas-liquid contactors for biorefining processes. Methods have been developed to synthesize polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and cellulose triacetate (CTA) nanoparticles <200nm in diameter, which will be used to encapsulate enzymes and whole cell catalysts. If successful, the project’s enzymes, materials, and engineered cells are expected to improve carbon capture technologies and enable sustainable biofuel and biomanufacturing in various applications, including for (ethanol) fermentation and biomedical uses. When combined, the novel bioreactors, strains, and enzymes produced have the potential to make a significant impact on converting captured and waste carbon for sustainable aviation and transportation fuel, decarbonizing heavy industry, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Project Title: Innovative Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture: Greening Ammonium Sulfate Production
PI – Dr. Mona Bavarian, Assistant Professor
UNL Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Yașar Demirel, Professor
UNL Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Javed Iqbal, Associate Professor
UNL Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Our project, Innovative Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture: Greening Ammonium Sulfate Production, is developing a sustainable pathway to produce ammonium sulfate fertilizer by integrating renewable energy with emission control systems. Leveraging modeling work, we have designed processes where alkaline water electrolyzer generates green hydrogen, which is then fed into a modified Haber–Bosch loop to synthesize green ammonia. This ammonia serves as the reagent in an ammonia-based flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process that captures sulfur dioxide from power plant emissions and converts it into ammonium sulfate fertilizer. During the first reporting period, we achieved significant progress by completing process models for green hydrogen and ammonia production, and initiated detailed modeling of the Efficient Ammonia-Based Desulfurization (EADS) system to target more than 99% SO₂ capture and high ammonia utilization efficiency. By directly linking fertilizer production capacity to Nebraska’s agricultural demand, this approach provides dual benefits: reducing greenhouse gas and sulfur emissions while supplying farmers with a sustainable, locally produced fertilizer. In addition, the project is training graduate and undergraduate students in advanced modeling, techno-economic analysis, and sustainable design, contributing to workforce development in clean energy and agricultural technology.
Project Title: Enhanced Hydrogen Generation and Utilization using Femtosecond Laser-nanostructured NiCo2O4 Electrocatalysts
PI – Dr. Yongfeng Lu, Lott Distinguished University Professor
UNL Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Bai Cui, Professor
UNL Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Vitaly Alexandrov, Richard L. McNeel Associate Professor
UNL Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering
Professors Yongfeng Lu, Bai Cui, and Vitaly Alexandrov have worked on the project entitled “Enhanced Hydrogen Generation and Utilization using Femtosecond Laser-nanostructured NiCo2O4 Electrocatalysts.” The project aims to develop efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution/reduction reactions (OER/ORR) in unified regenerative fuel cells to advance hydrogen production and utilization. Over the first six months, they have accomplished fabricating laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) on nickel substrates to enhance electrocatalytic areas, synthesizing NiCo2O4 powders via hydroxide decomposition and fabricating electrodes through electrophoretic deposition, and conducting initial electrochemical characterizations via cyclic voltammetry and DFT simulations to assess doping effects on OER activity. The team has successfully nanostructured Ni substrates, synthesized NiCo2O4 materials, and identified doping strategies for improved performance.
Project Title: Innovative Solutions for Data Center Thermal Management: Oxide-Free Femtosecond Laser Processed Copper Surfaces
PI – Dr. Graham Kaufman, Research Engineer, Research Assistant Professor
UNL Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Craig Zuhlke, Richard L. McNeel Associate Professor
UNL Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Jeffrey Shield, Department Chair, Robert W. Brightfelt Professor
UNL Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering
The increasing presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life has brought an immediate need for innovative thermal management solutions in AI computing datacenters. The next generation of thermal management solutions will increase the sustainability of AI datacenters by decreasing the environmental impact associated with cooling AI computing components while simultaneously extending their lifetime. With NCESR’s support, we have developed a highly tunable and scalable surface engineering method that can dissipate the thermal loads generated by AI computing components by using waste heat from the components to boil commercially available engineered fluids that can directly interface with AI server racks. The femtosecond laser-based surface processing technique generates microscale structures that are blanketed in nanoparticles on bulk copper blocks. These features, finer than a human hair, promote boiling and lead to remarkably efficient heat transfer, which will keep computing components cool and prevent the need for the inefficient current thermal management solution of air cooling. Since the beginning of NCESR’s support, we have isolated the role of the laser-generated microscale and nanoscale roughness layers for boiling heat transfer, and devised methods to control each layer independently which has opened doors for us to create optimized boiling surfaces for several different thermal loads.
Project Title: Advanced manufacturing of high-temperature alloy components for small modular reactors
PI – Dr. Bai Cui, Professor
UNL Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering
Co-PI – Dr. Yongfeng Lu, Lott Distinguished University Professor
UNL Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Compared to the traditional full-scale nuclear energy plants, small modular reactors (SMRs) have advantages such as smaller physical footprints, reduced capital investment, and the ability to be sited in locations inappropriate for larger nuclear plants. In addition to generating electricity for Nebraskans, SMRs may create new economic opportunities for Nebraska, such as nuclear-powered data Artificial Intelligence data centers and agricultural wastewater treatment plants. This project aims to enable advanced manufacturing of high-temperature alloy components in Nebraska for SMRs. Our team has developed novel additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for advanced austenitic steels, which are structural materials for components of high-temperature SMRs. AM can produce small, high-value components, which have the potential to reduce the deployment time and component fabrication costs of SMRs. Our team has presented our AM technologies at the NSF Workshop on AI-Powered Materials Discovery at Great Plains in June. It will show posters and prototypes of reactor components at the 3rd Nebraska Advanced Nuclear Conference in October 2025. In June 2025, the American Nuclear Society (ANS) board of directors approved to establish the ANS-UNL Student Chapter, in which Alex Rien serves as the President and Dr. Bai Cui serves as the Faculty Advisor.
NEW Award for Best NCESR Summer Intern Poster!
To recognize outstanding work, NCESR and NPPD are excited to introduce a new award honoring the Best NCESR Summer Intern Poster. This award celebrates creativity, research excellence, and presentation skills showcased during the annual UNL Summer Research Symposium on August 5, 2025.
All NCESR intern poster presentations were phenomenal, making selecting a top award exceptionally challenging. Every intern should be proud of their outstanding achievements and hard work.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Octavious Gonzalez
NCESR 2025 Summer Intern Poster Winner and $500 recipient.
Cooper Swoboda and Vladislav Prakapchuk
NCESR 2025 Summer Intern Poster Honorable Mention recipients.
2025 Symposium Unveils Interns’ Research Discoveries
UNL Summer Research Symposium
This summer, our talented group of interns demonstrated exceptional dedication and expertise by presenting their research findings at the annual UNL Summer Research Symposium on August 5, 2025. Their projects covered a diverse range of innovative energy topics, reflecting both creativity and rigorous scientific inquiry. The presentations impressed faculty and peers alike, highlighting the promising futures of these emerging scholars. The interns continued their research through the end of August, gaining valuable experience—whether it was their first time engaging in such work or a continuation of their academic journey. Each intern excelled in creating and presenting their posters, making this summer’s symposium a resounding success.
NPPD Generation Research Sr. Program Manager and NPPD Liaison Roman Estrada, NPPD Associate Director of Research and NPPD Liaison Alan Dostal, NCESR Program Manager Brenda Coufal and NCESR Administrative Associate Sue Wesely enjoyed viewing the posters and learning about the research during the presentations.
To view the NCESR summer undergraduate internship posters, go to Undergraduate Summer Internship Posters.
Internship Wrap Up
The 2025 internships concluded on August 29. Each student prepared a thank-you letter to their faculty sponsor, NCESR, and NPPD; a summary report outlining their summer research experience in energy sciences, accomplishments, and lessons learned; and a testimonial to promote this beneficial opportunity to other UNL students, encouraging them to apply for the summer of 2026. Additionally, NCESR offers the summer interns the chance to request a $1,000 travel fund to present their internship research at a relevant conference by May 2, 2026. Interns who receive funding will submit a brief report about their conference experience.
The Energy Center is proud to support these bright young individuals on their learning journey and wishes them every success in their future endeavors!
NCESR and NPPD sincerely thank the faculty sponsors for their invaluable mentorship of the summer interns. The dedicated support from these faculty members is the cornerstone of the internship program’s success and growth.
These internships are made possible through NCESR with support from the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). The NCESR summer internship program is named after Mr. Darrell J. Nelson, who served 41 years on the Custer County Public Power District and NPPD Boards. In 2005, Mr. Nelson, an advocate of lifelog learning, proposed a partnership between NPPD and UNL to engage in energy sciences research. The following year, NCESR was created with NPPD’s financial support.
CNS tour creates lasting memories for interns and faculty
Interns and faculty from the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research (NCESR) visited NPPD’s Cooper Nuclear Station (CNS) on July 9 to learn about safe, reliable, emissions-free nuclear energy and how the station has generated it for over fifty years.
The site tour started with a presentation led by Nuclear Engineer Supervisor Eric Wilke that included the background and history of CNS, how a boiling water reactor generates nuclear power, and the value of existing nuclear power plants and the growing interest in advanced nuclear options. After the presentation, Wilke, Design Engineer Jacob Patrick, and Design Electrical Engineer Steven Thiem escorted the NCESR team to the Protected Area, where they received an interactive demonstration in the Control Room Simulator. While in the Training Building, the tour leaders explained the control rod and fuel bundle mock-up displays and showed the group the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. Additional tour stops included the reactor building’s refuel floor, control room corridor, turbine building, emergency diesel generator and switchyard. The tour concluded with lunch and a question-and-answer session.
In 2024, CNS celebrated fifty years of commercial operation. In those fifty years, CNS generated approximately 275 million MWhs of carbon-free electricity, eliminating emissions of approximately 275 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
In June 1968, NPPD (known as Consumers Public Power District at the time) received permission to begin construction of CNS, using more than 90,000 cubic yards of concrete and 10,000 tons of steel. The plant started commercial operation on July 1, 1974, and its General Electric BWR/4 reactor can generate a nominal 800-MWhs of electricity.
CNS received a license renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in November 2010, extending the operating license to January 2034. NPPD’s board of directors authorized management to pursue a subsequent license renewal that, if approved by the NRC, would extend the operating license to January 2054. Since its inception, CNS has achieved many notable accomplishments. In 1998, it was the first plant in the U.S. to load nuclear fuel containing uranium provided under the Megatons to Megawatts Program. That program, in which uranium removed from nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union was turned into low-enriched uranium and then into fuel, helped make the world safer and powered Nebraska’s economy.
Behind the Scenes: A look at NCESR research cycles 19 & 20
NCESR, in collaboration with Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), provides major funding for two-year research projects to University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) faculty. The NCESR funds enable UNL faculty to conduct innovative research to develop or enhance energy science and technologies and educate undergraduate and graduate students on various energy-related aspects. Faculty are expected to use NCESR’s funding as a seed to pursue major external funding. NPPD provides several letters of support for UNL faculty each year as they bid on federal grants (e.g., Department of Energy, Department of Defense, etc.).
Upcoming Progress Review Committee Meeting to Determine Cycle 19 Year 2 Funding
The principal investigators of the NCESR Cycle 19 seed research grants are scheduled to present their project updates to the NCESR Progress Review Committee on October 15, 2025. This important meeting will serve as a key milestone, where the committee will evaluate the progress of each project and decide which Cycle 19 grants will receive Year 2 funding.
Progress Review Committee members include NPPD liaisons, ensuring strong collaboration and oversight throughout the review process.
Stay tuned for updates on the outcomes and selected projects advancing into their second year of funding.
NCESR Advances to Final Stages in Cycle 20 Seed Research Grants Selection
NCESR is currently in a rigorous selection process for the Cycle 20 seed research grants. This year, 39 preproposals were submitted by UNL faculty, demonstrating strong interest and innovative ideas in energy-related research.
Following a thorough review, the NCESR Executive Council (EC), including NPPD liaisons, carefully evaluated each submission and invited 17 applicants to advance to the full proposal stage.
External reviewers are now assessing the 17 full proposals. The NCESR EC will review these evaluations and will hear presentations from the principal investigators on November 3, 2025. Based on these comprehensive reviews and presentations, the EC will rank the proposals and recommend funding to the NCESR External Advisory Committee (EAC).
The EAC, which also includes NPPD liaisons and other NPPD professionals, will convene on December 9, 2025, to make the final funding decisions. Eight of the 17 full proposals will be awarded seed research grants.
NCESR Research Projects Influences UNL Students’ Success
Students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) can achieve success at various levels while collaborating with researchers on NCESR funded projects. They gain insights and experience with the research process, and regardless of the research outcomes, valuable lessons are learned. Students can use their research data to create a poster for presentation at the UNL Student Research Days and other poster sessions. These events enhance their presentation skills, which are important lifelong skills.
The UNL offices of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, Graduate Studies, and Research and Innovation hosted poster sessions on April 15-16, 2025, during the Student Research Days. Over 120 graduates and 200 undergraduate students participated. The poster sessions provide students with the opportunity to showcase their research or creative work, communicate their findings to the UNL community and learn about other areas of research and creative activities. Among the nineteen posters representing research projects funded by the NCESR, four were presented by undergraduate students, while fifteen were presented by graduate students. The competition involved nearly 40 judges, including faculty and postdoctoral researchers who evaluated the presentations based on research content and presentation skills.
Congratulations to the Poster Winners affiliated with NCESR!
- Aida Rashidi, a graduate student studying Civil and Environmental Engineering presented a poster titled, “Developing Life Cycle Inventory for Ethanol Plants Using Machine Learning.” UNL advisor is Dr. Bruce Dvorak in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aida received a $400 grant to present the research regionally or nationally as well as support other research costs.
- Graduate students, Haoyu Dong studying Electrical and Computer Engineering and Xin Chen studying Mechanical and Materials Engineering presented a poster titled, “Enhanced Hydrogen Generation and Utilization Using Femtosecond Laser-Nanostructured NiCo₂O₄ Electrocatalysts.” Payal Chaudhary studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Joseph Talley studying Mechanical and Materials Engineering are part of the team. UNL Advisers for the team are: Dr. Bai Cui in Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Dr. Yongfeng Lu in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dr. Vitaly Alexandrov in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. The graduate student team received a $400 grant to present the research regionally or nationally as well as support other research costs.