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| BATON ROUGE – LSU will be home to one of 46 new multi-million-dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers, or EFRCs, announced by the White House in conjunction with a speech delivered by President Barack Obama at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. The EFRCs, which will pursue advanced scientific research on energy, are being established by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science at universities, national laboratories and nonprofit organizations across the nation. The DOE plans to fund LSU’s EFRC, headed by Jerry Spivey, McLaurin Shrivers Professor of Chemical Engineering, at a level of $12.5 million, payable over five years. The Board of Regents is also supporting the EFRC with approximately $940,000 in additional funds. “As global energy demand grows over this century, there is an urgent need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and imported oil and curtail greenhouse gas emissions,” said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. “Meeting this challenge will require significant scientific advances. These centers will mobilize the enormous talents and skills of our nation’s scientific workforce in pursuit of the breakthroughs that are essential to make alternative and renewable energy truly viable as large-scale replacements for fossil fuels.” The 46 EFRCs, to be funded at $2-5 million per year each for a planned initial five-year period, were selected from a pool of some 260 applications received in response to a solicitation issued by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science in 2008. Selection was based on a rigorous merit review process utilizing outside panels composed of scientific experts. LSU’s EFRC is titled “Computational Catalysis and Atomic-Level Synthesis of Materials: Building Effective Catalysts from First Principles.” It will be housed in LSU’s Cain Department of Chemical Engineering and will rely heavily on LSU’s own synchrotron radiation facility, the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices, or CAMD, for synthesis and characterization of novel nanostructured catalysts. “This project brings together 21 investigators from nine institutions,” said Spivey. “Our goal is to advance the emerging field of computational catalysis with experimental and spectroscopic methods, like those available at LSU’s CAMD synchrotron facility, to develop new materials that can help provide clean energy.” Spivey also points out that researchers involved with this project will come from around the world to collaborate with LSU researchers and utilize CAMD for research applications. “Simply put, I don’t believe we would have received this funding without having a resource like CAMD in our backyard,” he said. EFRC researchers at other centers throughout the United States will take advantage of new capabilities in nanotechnology, high-intensity light sources, neutron scattering sources, supercomputing and other advanced instrumentation, much of it developed with DOE Office of Science support over the past decade, in an effort to lay the scientific groundwork for fundamental advances in solar energy, biofuels, transportation, energy efficiency, electricity storage and transmission, clean coal and carbon capture and sequestration and nuclear energy. “This is a resounding endorsement of the type of world class research being performed at LSU. The fact that LSU has cutting edge research facilities like CAMD and the Center for Computation and Technology, and outstanding research faculty like Professor Spivey and his colleagues, makes us competitive with some of the country’s leading research universities and laboratories,” said Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development Brooks Keel. “It is also a clear statement that our students are receiving first-rate education and training opportunities from nationally recognized experts and in fields of science and engineering of global importance.” Other professors who are part of the LSU team include:
The LSU EFRC will also bring together the expertise of scientists and engineers from other institutions, including:
“The leadership shown by Jerry Spivey and the generous support of the Department of Energy and the Board of Regents just underscore the quality of research our university generates every single day,” said LSU Chancellor Michael Martin. “Our researchers depend on external resources to supplement and advance their individual projects, but the university depends on state funding to sustain the faculty on a day-to-day basis. The payoffs for Louisiana are enormous.” Of the 46 EFRCs selected, 31 are led by universities, 12 by DOE National Laboratories, two by nonprofit organizations and one by a corporate research laboratory. The criterion for providing an EFRC with Recovery Act funding was job creation. The EFRCs chosen for funding under the Recovery Act provide the most employment for postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduates and technical staff, in keeping with the Recovery Act’s objective to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery. For more information about the EFRC, contact Ashley Berthelot at 225-578-3870 or aberth4@lsu.edu. -30- |
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