Principal Investigator: Dr. Luca Mastropasqua
The HERD Lab fourth year Ph.D. student Zilong Zhuang was awarded the Energy Materials and Systems Divisions’ 2026 Outstanding Student Researcher Award of the American Ceramic Society. The award was presented at the Materials Science & Technology (MS&T) 2026 conference in Pittsburgh, PA. At the MS&T 2026 conference, Zilong presented a talk entitled “Elucidating Transient …
Following the recent Forward in Energy Forum hosted by the Wisconsin Energy Institute, Dr. Luca Mastropasqua participated in a panel discussion titled “Critical Minerals and Energy.” Alongside other UW–Madison experts, Dr. Mastropasqua shared insights from his research at the HERD Lab on how electrochemical separations and metal refining can help address the growing global demand …
Last week, Minkyoung Park and Luca Mastropasqua participated as exhibitors at the 2026 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, in San Diego, California. Minkyoung Park presented her updates on her Ph.D. work on electrochemical plastic hydrogenolysis to produce ethylene. The goal of the project is to utilize waste streams to produce valuable chemicals using only water and …
Project: Additive Manufacturing of Ceramics Using SLA 3D Printing A major challenge in ceramic manufacturing is the difficulty of processing these inherently brittle materials. Ceramics are difficult to machine and post-process, limiting their shapes to relatively simple geometries. This problem could be alleviated with additive manufacturing, specifically stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing. By suspending a ceramic in …
Summary The HERD Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison invites applications for a funded post-doctoral researcher position to develop a transformational solid-state electrochemical membrane reactor for direct depolymerization of plastic waste. The goal of the project is to synthesize metal oxide materials, fabricate solid-state membranes and high active area metallic supports via additive manufacturing, and …
Mastropasqua has been selected by the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to receive an Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy 2024 (IGNIITE 2024) award.
Summary The HERD Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison invites applications for a funded post-doctoral researcher position to study high temperature electrolysis cells and stacks for hydrogen and syngas production, and for electrochemical synthesis of high-value chemicals. The goal of the project is to experimentally characterize the electrochemical performance, investigate degradation phenomena, and mathematically simulate …
Manufacturing iron and steel is an extremely energy-intensive process, and the industry is one of the highest greenhouse gas-emitting sectors. Luca Mastropasqua, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is hoping to upend those emissions.