Student inventor tackles challenge of hydrogen storage

Determined to play a key role in solving global dependency on fossil fuels, Tehran-born Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the department of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new method for storing hydrogen at room temperature. (See: Enabling greener transportation with graphene)

Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize-Winner Javad Rafiee.

Rafiee has created a novel form of engineered graphene that exhibits hydrogen storing capacity far exceeding any other known material.

For this innovation, which brings the world a step closer to realising the widespread adoption of clean, abundant hydrogen as a fuel for transportation vehicles, Rafiee is the winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize for 2010. He is among the four winners announced yesterday, 3 March.

The Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize is awarded to a student who has demonstrated remarkable inventiveness and innovation. Funded through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize has recognized outstanding student inventors at MIT since 1995, details of which can be viewed.

''Invention is the key ingredient of progress, and the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize rallies our students to innovate world-changing solutions for the grand challenges facing all people of all nations,'' said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. ''Javad Rafiee has the vision of a robust national hydrogen economy and a world less dependent on oil and gasoline. I applaud his efforts toward this noble goal, and congratulate him on this prestigious award. I thank all of the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Collegiate Student Prize winners and finalists for their effort, zeal, and for being ambassadors of progress.''

Rafiee is the fourth recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. The prize, first given in 2007, is awarded annually to a Rensselaer senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways.