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

Researchers Find Value in Unusual Type of Plant Material

UW-Madison scientists have shown that a recently-discovered variety of lignin, catechyl lignin (C-lignin), has attributes that could make it well-suited as the starting point for a range of bioproducts.

Graduate Students Awarded Department of Energy Fellowship

Anda Trifan, a doctoral candidate in professor of biochemistry Emad Tajkhorshid’s research group, has been awarded a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship to support her research in theoretical and computational biophysics. Edward Hutter, a doctoral candidate in professor of computer science Edgar Solomonik’s research group, was awarded the fellowship to support his research in computer science.

Graduate Student Glad Dlott Receives Award to Study Soil Microbes at National Lab

Glade Dlott, a graduate student in the Peay lab at Stanford University, is taking a closer look at soil microbe behavior and interactions. In support of this research, he has received a 2018 Office of Science Graduate Student Research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

New Fuel Cell Concept Brings Biological Design to Better Electricity Generation

A University of Wisconsin–Madison team has designed a fuel cell using cheaper materials and an organic compound that shuttles electrons and protons.

UCLA Professors Justin Caram & Anastassia Alexandrova are co-PIs on DOE QIS Research Grant

Team from UCLA, USC, Caltech and Harvard, led by UCLA physicist Wesley Campbell, awarded 2.7 million 3-year DOE Quantum Information Science Research Award.

What Causes Nuclear Waste Glass to Dissolve?

Researchers from the University of Houston, the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Pittsburgh are working to discover what causes nuclear waste glass to deteriorate, and how to slow or stop the process.

Harvesting Solar Fuels Through a Bacterium's Unusual Appetite for Gold

A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won’t work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis.

Scientists Present New Clues to Cut Through the Mystery of Titan's Atmospheric Haze

A research collaboration, involving scientists in the Chemical Sciences Division at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Ralf Kaiser, has zeroed in on a low-temperature chemical mechanism that may have driven the formation of multiple-ringed molecules—the precursors to more complex chemistry now found in the moon’s brown-orange haze layer.

Purdue Team Receives $2.5 Million to Develop Quantum Computing Technologies

A team of Purdue researchers led by Sabre Kais, a professor of chemistry, received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance technologies in quantum information science.

Department of Energy Supports Research on Microplasmas

A new grant from the Department of Energy is enabling Dr. Stephen Remillard of the Hope College physics faculty to explore how microplasmas function — understanding that is meant to improve their value in applications ranging from the design of small radio components, to plasma display panels, to surgery.

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.

Study Opens Route to Flexible Electronics Made from Exotic Materials

MIT researchers have devised a way to grow a single crystalline compound semiconductor on its substrate through two-dimensional materials.