Berkeley Lab has been fortunate enough over the years to have received many awards that fund new and interesting work that ties into national priorities, from clean energy to biopreparedness. This year in particular has been a banner year, with the late summer and fall in particular bringing in news of many funding awards.
Awards for early career scientists
In August, three Lab scientists were named recipients of the DOE’s prestigious Early Career Research Program award; the award provides funding over five years to researchers at the outset of their careers to conduct research on complex topics. Sam Barber, a research scientist in the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics Division (ATAP), received an award to develop next-generation light sources using laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs); Lucas Brouwer, also with ATAP, will work on optimizing and testing a novel superconducting magnet tailored for “fixed-field acceleration” for next-generation particle accelerators; and Jin Qian, a scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division, received an award to work on understanding how chemical dynamics affects energy harvesting in renewable energy applications. Additionally, Michael Zuerch, a faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division and an assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, received an ECRP award through his UC Berkeley affiliation. His ECRP project will explore how to control the chiral properties of materials through light-matter interactions, which is a critical frontier in materials research.
Building research capacity at underrepresented institutions
Building research capacity at underrepresented institutions and encouraging minorities to continue in STEM careers continues to be a priority for the DOE. Two awards that aim to support these goals are funding a total of ten projects at Berkeley Lab. The Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) initiative announced funding for five projects involving Lab researchers, including projects to develop machine learning, computational tools for scientific discovery, and energy storage-related research. Berkeley Lab co-investigators involved in these projects are: Paolo Calafiura, Khaled Ibrahim, Andrew Nonaka, David Prendergast, and Wanli Yang.
In addition, the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) awards from the Office of Science announced funding for five collaborative programs between Berkeley Lab and institutions serving historically underrepresented communities. The programs cover research on bioenergy, watershed analysis, climate-smart agriculture, data science for genomics research, and quantum bit (qubit) research. Scientists involved in these projects are Deepika Awasthi, Eoin Brodie, Sharon Greenblum, Michelle Newcomer, Thomas Schenkel, John Vogel, Zhong Wang, and Kenneth Williams.
Funding for K-12 programs
Two recent funding grants from the Department of Energy will also allow the Lab to bring more young people into the sciences. Through QCaMP, the Lab will expose high school students to areas such as quantum computing, while another program, building off the Director’s Apprenticeship Program, will focus on machine learning, data science, and plant biology.
Another boost for biopreparedness research
Areas of strategic importance to the DOE and to Berkeley Lab have also received significant awards. The DOE’s Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) initiative is funding three research projects at the Lab; the projects will leverage bioimaging expertise to develop better therapies and vaccines for viruses (project lead: Greg Hura), develop a high-throughput platform to rapidly design countermeasures to drug-resistant pathogens (project lead: Vivek Mutalik), and enhance a generalized tool for epidemiology and ensure that it will be flexible enough to rapidly incorporate new diseases (project lead: Peter Nugent). In addition, Yasuo Yoshikuni will contribute to a Brookhaven National Laboratory-led project to research the molecular basis of plant-pathogen interactions.
Energy-related research continues its momentum
Energy-related research was another highlight this fall. The DOE’s Energy Earthshots initiative announced it is funding two new research centers led by the Lab: RESTOR-C, directed by Susannah Tringe, will develop better ways for plants and microbes to pull carbon from the atmosphere and lock it away in the soil; and the Center for Ionomer-based Water Electrolysis (CIWE), directed by Adam Weber, will investigate methods to improve the efficiency and durability of clean-hydrogen production.
The hydrogen research team is also involved in an award from the DOE to the State of California’s Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES). The Lab will play an important role, doing the master planning work, conducting systems analysis, and providing technical leadership.
Supporting data-intensive science
The DOE has also been advancing an “integrated research infrastructure” across the DOE lab network that will connect researchers with its computing and user facilities seamlessly and securely to accelerate discovery and innovation. It recently announced funding to build the High Performance Data Facility. The project will be a partnership between Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) and Berkeley Lab, with the facility housed at JLab; Berkeley Lab will provide management and operational support.
“These funding awards are a huge boost for many areas that are strategically important for the Lab,” said Carol Burns, the Lab’s Deputy Director for Research. “They also indicate that our strategies to focus on team science and multi-Area collaborations, and to listen and incorporate feedback from the Office of Science, are bearing fruit.”
