Mary K. Carroll '86

Research interests

Since the 2001-02 academic year, my main research focus has been on the fabrication, characterization and applications of aerogel materials. Prof. Ann Anderson (Union C. Mechanical Engineering Dept.) and I co-direct the Aerogel Lab, a highly productive, cross-disciplinary research group. Union College undergraduate students and faculty members have developed and patented an alternate approach to preparing aerogels. In addition to fundamental studies of the novel fabrication process, our team investigates applications of aerogels in areas as diverse as aerogel-based windows for sustainable buildings and catalytic aerogels for automotive pollution mitigation.