The NSF-PREM: Center for Interfacial Electrochemistry of Energy Materials (CIE2M) rests on the partnership of four institutions that complete the PREM pathway, Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) and Universidad del Turabo (UT), the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPR-RP), all Hispanic-serving institutions, and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) at Cornell University, which is a Division of Materials Research-supported center. CIE2M brings together a diverse and talented scientific community with experience and expertise in electrochemistry, solid-state chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and synchrotron-based techniques for characterization and innovation of energy materials in operando conditions at CHESS. The partnership will help develop a fundamental understanding of charge transfer mechanisms and electrochemical processes across surfaces, subsurfaces, and interfaces in nanostructured materials that will motivate and prepare undergraduate and graduate students to pursue interdisciplinary careers using synchrotron-based techniques.

The NSF PREM CiE2M partnership aims to:

1. enhance the participant’s research capacity, scientific productivity, and training in the field of materials characterization using synchrotron-based techniques,

2. promote recruitment, retention, and degree attainment of minority students involved in STEM, and

3. increase the number of Hispanic users at CHESS by providing opportunities to expose undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students for the utilization of synchrotron-based techniques to complete their research projects.

CIE 2 M expects to provide the broad scientific community with unique results, not attainable anywhere else, that would lead to the better understanding of interfacial electrochemistry and the development of new energy materials.