Materials engineering grad student earns prestigious sustainability fellowship

The U.S. government wants to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, plus a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 via investing in renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind microgrid systems. Yaqub Adediji is going to help them do it.

The second-year doctoral student in materials engineering was recently tapped for the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Corps Fellowship, an innovative program aimed at cultivating the next generation of sustainability professionals. Adediji, whose research focuses on developing non-destructive corrosion monitoring and detection systems in aerospace and renewable energy systems, was selected for the fellowship from more than 1,200 applicants.

"In this fellowship, I will be helping cities, companies and households transition from fossil-fuel based systems to clean energy sources, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the urgent challenges of climate change in the United States," Adediji said. "Over the summer, I will be working with Technimark, Inc., a global leader and manufacturer of high-value injection-molded packaging materials and components serving the consumer packaging, healthcare and industrial markets to screen their supply and value chain for opportunities for transitioning to clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

The fellowship is just one of Adediji's recent renewable energy research accolades.

In 2022, he was named a Purdue Climate Fellow, and worked on a highly praised project involving the installation of micro-grids with wind turbines and solar PVs to satisfy the energy demand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the Techno-economic Analysis of Microgrid Deployment in Puerto Rico.

"I am very honored to receive this fellowship," Adediji said. "I want to thank my advisor, Dr. Zhongyang Cheng, my lab mates, Jindong Wei, Haoran Wang and Wei Yi, and the entire materials engineering department for their support. I am beyond excited to collaborate with the Environmental Defense Fund to aid transition to clean energy systems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions causing adverse effects on climate in the United States."