With four award winners in this year’s list of 65 Early Career Research Program recipients announced last week by DOE’s Office of Science, Berkeley Lab scores high among the institutions whose researchers have won the five-year, $2.5 million grants. The winners are (from l-r) Paolo Ferracin of the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, Susannah Tringe of the Genomics Division and the Joint Genome Institute, Haimei Zheng of MSD and the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and Junqiao Wu of the Materials Sciences Division (MSD). More>
Archive for May 12th, 2011
Four Berkeley Lab Researchers Win Office of Science Early Career Awards
Thursday, May 12th, 2011Berkeley Lab Hosts China Forum; MOU Signed
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
As part of President Barack Obama’s commitment to strengthen cooperation with China in the area of clean energy, Berkeley Lab has entered into an agreement to provide training and other expertise to China’s National Energy Conservation Center (NECC). Berkeley Lab and Oak Ridge National Laboratory signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last Friday with the NECC in Berkeley, site of the two-day Second U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Forum, organized by the DOE and hosted by Berkeley Lab. More>
Striking the Right Balance in Microbial Engineering
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, a chemist in the Physical Biosciences Division working at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led the development of a library of microbial efflux pumps that reduce toxicity and boost production of biofuels in engineered strains of microbes. This library and the bioprospecting strategy behind it should serve as valuable new tools for the development of advanced biofuels and other areas of biotechnology as well. Also working on this project from Berkeley Lab were Mary Dunlop, Zain Dossani, Heather Szmidt, Taek Soon Lee, and JBEI CEO Jay Keasling. More>
Students Present Commercialization Plans for Lab Technologies
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Last week, UC Berkeley graduate student teams presented to industry executives and investors their analyses of how best to commercialize twelve of Berkeley Lab’s technologies. The technologies included carbon sequestration using synthetic polymers, the Home Energy Saver, hydrogen-bromine flow battery for grid-scale storage, and catalysts for generating hydrogen from water, among others. The presentation was part of a semester-long course titled, CleanTech to Market (or C2M), during which the teams learned about emerging green technologies, obtained feedback from industry stakeholders, and questioned potential future customers and users. More>
Proton Dripping Tests a Basic Form of Nature
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Like gravity, the strong interaction is a fundamental force of nature. It is the essential “glue” that holds atomic nuclei—composed of protons and neutrons— together to form atoms, the building blocks of nearly all the visible matter in the universe. Despite its prevalence in nature, researchers are still searching for the precise laws that govern the strong force. However, the recent discovery of an extremely exotic, short-lived nucleus called fluorine-14 in laboratory experiments may indicate that scientists are gaining a better grasp of these rules. More>
Five-Day Illness Policy Reminder
Thursday, May 12th, 2011Employees are reminded that Lab policy (RPM 2.09 D 11) requires employees who are off work for five consecutive workdays or more due to personal illnesses to get a physician’s note and return to work through Health Services. This policy supports the Lab’s desire to ensure fitness for duty, compliance with FMLA, and disability accommodation.
