Three chemistry faculty have recently received major awards from the US Department of Energy. 

Sarah Finkeldei received a $4.3 M grant from the Basic Energy Sciences of the US DOE for a project entitled "Advancing clean energy through fundamental insights into defect generation and transport phenomena at grain boundaries in nuclear energy materials”. This project, which will be carried out in collaborations with scientists at UCI and Los Alamos National Lab,  will contribute to unraveling the mechanisms of grain boundary defect interactions in advanced nuclear fuel systems.

Jenny Yang and Shane Ardo are PIs on two new Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs). These Centers are funded at ~$10 M for four years. This may be the first time that two EFRCs were awarded to a single department in the same year.

Professor Yang’s EFRC, the “Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle” will advance the foundational science and define key parameters for reactive capture of CO2.

Professor Ardo’s EFRC, “Ensembles of Photosynthetic Nanoreactors”, aims to understand, predict, and control the activity, selectivity, and stability of solar water splitting nonreactors.

Congratulations to Sarah, Jenny, and Shane on these outstanding awards from the Department of Energy!