2018 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

New Natural Gas Catalyst Would Boost Clean Transportation

The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen a team led by a chemical engineer from the University of Houston for a $2 million project to develop and optimize a lower-cost, more efficient catalyst to eliminate unreacted methane.

Nuclear Engineering Program Collaborating in Energy Frontier Research Center

The Ohio State University is a collaborator on a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). A cohort of 42 new and renewed centers announced in June 2018 have been established to accelerate the scientific breakthroughs needed to strengthen U.S. economic leadership and energy security.

MSU Physicist's Subatomic Structure Study Published in Nature

A member of Mississippi State’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has been recognized on an international platform for her investigation into the subatomic structure of nuclei. Assistant Professor Lamiaa El Fassi’s research, “Probing high-momentum protons and neutrons in neutron-rich nuclei,” was published recently in the global scientific journal Nature.

Professor Benjamin Safdi Awarded DOE’s Early Career Award

Theoretical physicist Benjamin Safdi has been awarded a 2018 Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Award. The five-year grant provides funding to support his research on the particle nature of dark matter. “

Exploring the Challenges of Exfoliating Novel Two-Dimensional Materials

Salvador Barraza-Lopez, associate professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, and his research group are studying 2D materials called group IV monochalcogenides, which includes tin selenide, germanium sulfide, tin(II) sulfide, tin telluride and tin selenide, among others.

WVU Physicists Awarded $1.34 Million to Develop Machine-learning Software

The researchers, James Lewis and Aldo Romero from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will lead a team from WVU, University of Southern California and Kitware, Inc. to develop new machine-learning tools for advancing chemical and materials science discoveries on the nation’s future high-speed computing platforms.

Replacing Hard Parts in Soft Robots

Researchers at Harvard University develop 'soft' valves to make entirely soft robots.

To Understand Watersheds, the Amazon Flood Plain is Her Laboratory

Earth sciences Ph.D. student Emily Burt will advance her research into the Amazon River watershed, studying how sulfur makes its way across the South American continent.

Discovery Opens the Possibility of Using Sunlight to Turn a Greenhouse Gas into Fuel

A team of scientists has discovered a single-site, visible-light-activated catalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into “building block” molecules that could be used for creating useful chemicals.

Broad Genome Analysis Shows Yeasts Evolving by Subtraction

A team of researchers led by labs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Vanderbilt University sequenced and compared the genomes of 332 species of budding yeasts, all members of a subphylum of yeasts that multiply by producing daughter cells from buds on their surface.

Amazonian Peatlands May Soon Switch from a Carbon Sink to a Carbon Source

Researchers at Arizona State University have discovered land-use disturbances may reverse the effect of the most efficient natural carbon sink on the planet.

'Magnetic Topological Insulator' Makes its Own Magnetic Field

A team of U.S. and Korean physicists has found the first evidence of a two-dimensional material that can become a magnetic topological insulator even when it is not placed in a magnetic field.