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

UC and its National Labs Invest in California Climate Change Research

Three new, large-scale research projects studying the effects of climate change on California are getting underway, thanks to over $11 million in awards resulting from the University of California’s close ties with its national laboratories.

Dielectric Metamaterial is Dynamically Tuned by Light

Researchers at Duke University have built the first metal-free, dynamically tunable metamaterial for controlling electromagnetic waves. The approach could form the basis for technologies ranging from improved security scanners to new types of visual displays.

Atomically Thin Light Emitting Device Opens the Possibility for 'Invisible' Displays

UC Berkeley engineers have built a bright-light emitting device that is millimeters wide and fully transparent when turned off. The light emitting material in this device is a monolayer semiconductor, which is just three atoms thick.

Molecular Prison Forces Diatomic Inmates to Cell Floor

A team of scientists including Carnegie’s Tim Strobel and Venkata Bhadram now report unexpected quantum behavior of hydrogen molecules, H2, trapped within tiny cages made of organic molecules, demonstrating that the structure of the cage influences the behavior of the molecule imprisoned inside it.

USD Takes Another Step Forward on Neutrino Research

Assistant physics professor Wenqin Xu has been leading the university collaboration on the experiment called the Majorana Demonstrator which has shown the ability to shield a sensitive, scalable 44-kilogram germanium detector array from background radioactivity in order to study neutrinoless double-beta decay.

New Design Produces True Lithium-Air Battery

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at Argonne National Laboratory have designed a new lithium-air battery that works in a natural air environment and still functioned after a record-breaking 750 charge/discharge cycles.

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Probe Hydrogen Bonds Using New Technique

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have used nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy to probe the hydrogen bonds that modulate the chemical reactivity of enzymes, catalysts and biomimetic complexes. The technique could lead to the development of better catalysts for use in a wide range of fields.

Chemists Awarded $3.6 Million to Study Quantum Computing

A group of Northwestern University chemists and engineers have been been awarded $3.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to support their work of creating better qubits, the smallest unit of a quantum computer.

New Options for Breast Cancer Drug Development Found in Estrogen Receptors

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have uncovered a previously uncharacterized, bridge-like structure within the human estrogen receptor that could serve as a valuable new drug target.

A New Path to Solving a Longstanding Fusion Challenge

A class exercise at MIT, aided by industry researchers, has led to an innovative solution to one of the longstanding challenges facing the development of practical fusion power plants: how to get rid of excess heat that would cause structural damage to the plant.

Physics Graduate Student Takes Her Thesis Research to a Department of Energy National Lab

For 12 months, Ashlyn Burch, a University of Alabama at Birmingham physics student will work at Sandia National Laboratory, high in the semi-arid Western city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, supported by a U.S. Department of Energy Science Graduate Student Research award.

New, Highly Stable Catalyst May Help Turn Water Into Fuel

In the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report on an electrocatalytic material made from mixing metal compounds with substance called perchloric acid.