Professor Eugene S. Mananga research span a range of topics in condensed matter physics, atomic and molecular physics, materials science, computational chemistry, thermodynamics, and nuclear medicine. More recently, Professor Mananga’s team paired with Dr. Hubertus van Dam, HPC Applications Architect in the Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Their research focused on assessing NWChemEx capabilities, specifically the exothermic reactions within the HZSM-5 zeolite, which is used in oils and detergents.

“Our research benefits from programs like SRP because greater diversity means many different perspectives,” says Dr. van Dam. “Students like Aissata might not have the same training as students who come from four-year institutions, but they are more willing to ask questions and listen to what you have to say. At the end, we were able to make very good progress.”

Another aspect of Dr. Mananga’ research consists on controlling the spin dynamics in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and using computational methods based on density functional theory (DFT) to characterize materials systems in fuel cells, batteries, and energy storage. Prof. Mananga notes that the combination of advanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy and DFT allows to untwine the complicated structure of various materials such as catalyst ZSM-5 zeolite, which is used in the conversion of biomass into other products. Professor Mananga multiple appointments reflect his interdisciplinary research. Dr. Mananga has received several Visiting Faculty Fellowships from the US Department of Energy to perform summer research in major US National Laboratories including Argonne National Laboratory (2019), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2020 & 2021), and Brookhaven National Laboratory (2022 & 2023).