Assistant professor H. Jeremy Cho (Mechanical Engineering) has received the NSF CAREER award for his project, "Continuous atmospheric water harvesting through gels."

This award for $596,487 will support research on atmospheric water harvesting for five years through a UNLV-developed hydrogel membrane design. Atmospheric water harvesting is a way to source fresh water from the ambient air. Despite the low humidity in Southern Nevada, there is a nearly limitless, hidden ocean of water all around us in the form of water vapor. However, transforming that water into liquid form is thermodynamically challenging. Using a unique flow-through hydrogel membrane, Cho's Da Kine Lab will be developing and improving a new way to perform that transformation while, at the same time, uncovering new science in the field of heat/mass transfer and polymer physics.

The CAREER project also includes educational plans to work with local high schools to build prototype water harvesting kits, operate them year-round, and send data to UNLV.