Dr. Plata comes to Duke after serving as a visiting professor in the Department of Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College and as a visiting professor in the Departments of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. Her work focuses on the development of novel chemicals, materials, and engineered systems to include performance, cost and environmental metrics.

Contact Info:

Office Location:
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://plata.cee.duke.edu/LITE/LITE_Home.html Lab Web Page

Education:

PhD, MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2009

BS, Union College, 2003

Research Interests:

My research interests focus on improving the development of novel chemicals and engineered systems to include environmental objectives, along with traditional performance and cost metrics. In particular, I seek to (1) predict and mitigate environmental damage through physiochemical understanding of material reactivity, prognostic fate models, and geochemical analyses, and (2) design benign syntheses via mechanistic understanding of chemical reactions used in industrial processes. Currently, I am excited about carbon-based nanomaterials and energy harvesting technologies.

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, National Academy of Science, 2011
Excellence in Mentoring, Mount Holyoke College Student Government Assoc., 2011
George "Gera" P. Pantelev Award for Greatest Contribution to MIT/WHOI Joint Program, MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2009
C. Ellen Gonter Environmental Chemistry Award for top graduate student paper, American Chemical Society, Environmental Division, 2008
Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability, MIT, 2007
Ocean Venture Fund Graduate Student Award, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2007
COOP Grant for K-8 Science Education, Harvard/MIT COOP, 2004, 2005, 2006
NSF Graduate Research Fellow, National Science Foundation, 2004
Frank Bailey Prize for Greatest Service to Union College in any field, Union College, 2003
George Catlin Prize for promise in graduate study and college teaching, Union College, 2003
Phi Beta Kappa, 2003
Robert Fuller Prize for outstanding chemistry research, Union College, 2003
Sigma Xi, 2003
Summer Student Fellow, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2002
NSF Award for the Integration of Research and Education Fellow, National Science Foundation, 2000

• CEE 160L.001, INTRO TO ENVIRON EGR AND SCI Synopsis

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• CEE 160L.01L, INTRO TO ENVIRON EGR AND SCI Synopsis

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Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Nessim, G. D. and Seita, M. and Plata, D. L. and O'Brien, K. P. and Hart, A. J. and Meshot, E. R. and Reddy, C. M. and Gschwend, P. M. and Thompson, C. V., Precursor gas chemistry determines the crystallinity of carbon nanotubes synthesized at low temperature, CARBON, vol. 49 no. 3 (2011), pp. 804--810 [doi]  [abs].
2. Plata, D. L. and Meshot, E. R. and Reddy, C. M. and Hart, A. J. and Gschwend, P. M., Multiple Alkynes React with Ethylene To Enhance Carbon Nanotube Synthesis, Suggesting a Polymerization-like Formation Mechanism, ACS NANO, vol. 4 no. 12 (2010), pp. 7185--7192 [doi]  [abs].
3. Plata, D. L. and Hart, A. J. and Reddy, C. M. and Gschwend, P. M., Early Evaluation of Potential Environmental Impacts of Carbon Nanotube Synthesis by Chemical Vapor Deposition, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE \& TECHNOLOGY, vol. 43 no. 21 (2009), pp. 8367--8373 [doi]  [abs].
4. Flores-Cervantes, D. X. and Plata, D. L. and MacFarlane, J. K. and Reddy, C. M. and Gschwend, P. M., Black carbon in marine particulate organic carbon: Inputs and cycling of highly recalcitrant organic carbon in the Gulf of Maine, MARINE CHEMISTRY, vol. 113 no. 3-4 (2009), pp. 172--181 [doi]  [abs].
5. Meshot, E. R. and Plata, D. L. and Tawfick, S. and Zhang, Y. Y. and Verploegen, E. A. and Hart, A. J., Engineering Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Growth by Decoupled Thermal Treatment of Precursor and Catalyst, ACS NANO, vol. 3 no. 9 (2009), pp. 2477--2486 [doi]  [abs].