Nick Weadock is a graduate student in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech with expertise in thermodynamics and kinetics of metal hydrides. He is interested in understanding the phase transformations that occur during hydriding and dehydriding with the goal of mitigating the extreme strains that lead to decrepitation of metal hydride particles. Nick has developed an in situ hydriding chamber for x-ray diffraction which will allow him to observe the hydriding transitions as they occur in real time. He has also performed high pressure neutron scattering experiments to determine the activation volume for hydrogen diffusion in metal hydrides. A more complete understanding of these processes will allow for the design of more robust metal hydride systems for hydrogen storage and battery technologies.

Nick received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.