Energy research at UC Irvine is focused on developing sustainable methods to meet current and future energy needs. Our goals are to solve major challenges in the collection and conversion of renewable energy, develop environmentally friendly routes to fuels and feedstock materials, design and demonstrate new processes that improve energy efficiency, and advance our understanding of energy conversion technologies. Applications targeted by our program include the cross-cutting and multi-disciplinary topics of solar photovoltaics, artificial photosynthesis (solar water splitting), thermoelectrics, fuel cells, batteries, heat management, desalination, multiple-electron-transfer catalysis, CO2 capture and conversion, interfacial (surface) chemistry, and nuclear fission. Students and Postdoctoral Scholars pursuing energy research at UC Irvine learn concepts and techniques that span across many chemical disciplines and into allied departments, such as Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, and Biology in order to develop the expertise to tackle and solve grand challenges on the frontiers of energy research.