2011 Photo Gallery

In the "Energy Conservation and Efficiency" technical session, George Crabtree, associate director of the Center for Emergent Superconductivity led by Brookhaven National Laboratory, shared proof of principle results that superconductivity performance can be significantly improved in commercial superconducting wires.

In the "Inorganic Photovoltaics" technical session, Michelle Povinelli, an assistant professor and member of the Center for Energy Nanoscience led by the University of Southern California, discussed design rules to increase the optical absorption in nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications.

Thomas Jaramillo, an assistant professor supported by the Stanford led Center on Nanostructuring for Efficient Energy Conversion, reported on efforts to engineer catalysts at the nanoscale for energy conversion reactions in the "Solar Fuels and Biomass" technical session.

Professor Ctirad Uher, a member of the Center for Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion led by Michigan State University, talked about new tools for thermoelectric material characterization in the session on "Energy Conservation and Efficiency".

In the technical session, "Effective and Sustainable Materials Design: Integration of Computation, Theory and Experiment", Assistant Professor Kyle Bishop shared recent results in chemical networks supported by the Non-equilibrium Energy Research Center. 

Karina Edmonds, Technology Transfer Coordinator at DOE, co-lead a lunch panel discussion on "Translating Basic Research to Energy Technology".

Benjamin Brown, Senior Science and Technology Advisor at the Office of Science, helped demystify the federal budget process in the lunch talk, "Science Policy, the Budget Battles of the 112th Congress, and the EFRCs

Alan Heeger, Nobel laureate and senior investigator in the Center for Energy Efficient Materials led by the University of California, Santa Barbara, explained recent results in plastic solar cells in the "Organic Photovoltaics" session.

Maria Chan, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Electrical Energy Storage led by Argonne National Laboratory, shared results from first principles studies of surfaces and interfaces in Li-ion batteries during the "Energy Storage and Transmission" parallel technical session.

Xiaoyang Zhu, Director of the Understanding Charge Separation and Transfer at Interfaces in Energy Materials EFRC (CST:EFRC) led by UT Austin, remembered the life and science of the late Paul F. Barbara, the founding Director of CST:EFRC.

Jean-Marie Tarascon, Professor at the University de Picardie Jules Verne, France, recounted European basic research activates in electrical energy storage during the session, "Global Perspectives on Frontiers in Energy Research".

Robin Grimes, Professor at Imperial College, United Kingdom, shared recent research endeavors in advanced nuclear energy systems being pursued in the UK during the EFRC Forum morning session.

Kazunari Domen, Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, delivered a plenary talk on Japanese basic energy science research in solar energy utilization during the EFRC Forum session, “Global Perspectives on Frontiers in Energy Research”.

Patricia Dehmer, Deputy Director for Science Programs in the DOE Office of Science, gave a tutorial on the energy challenges facing our Nation and showed how the DOE research portfolio addresses those issues.

Dave Wesolowski, Director of the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Ashley Predith, Associate Director of the Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage EFRC at the University of Maryland, discussed recent results during the EFRC Summit Poster Reception.

During the EFRC Summit Poster Reception, Jon Schuller, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Columbia University led EFRC, Re-Defining Photovoltaic Efficiency Through Molecular Scale Control, explained his center's research achievements.

Gang Chen, Director of the Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion Center at MIT, and P. Thiyagarajan, a DOE EFRC program manager, discussed research accomplishments during the EFRC Summit Poster Reception.

Each of the 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers presented an overview poster highlighting their center's mission and early research achievements during the EFRC Summit reception at the Science for Our Nation's Energy Future event.

The five winners of the "Life at the Frontiers of Energy Research" video contest were screened during the award ceremony, including the entry "Carbon in Underland" submitted by the Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO2 led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Persis Drell, Director at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Brent Gunnoe, Director of the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalization; Don DePaolo, Director of the Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO2; and Neal Armstrong, Director of the Center for Interface Science: Solar Electric Materials, shared their insider views on the importance of EFRCs for addressing critical energy needs in the panel, "EFRCs: A View from Senior EFRC Representatives".

Persis Drell, Director at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, moderated the panel, "EFRCs: A View from Senior EFRC Representatives".

David Carlson, Chief Scientist of BP Solar; Katie Hunt, R&D Director of Innovation Sourcing and Sustainable Technologies at The Dow Chemical Company; and Yet-Ming Chiang, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of A123 Systems enthusiastically discussed how basic science impacts energy technology.

George Crabtree, Distinguished Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory; Mark Ratner, Professor at Northwestern University; and Millie Dresselhaus, Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discussed how the EFRCs arose out of a series of Grand Challenge and Basic Research Needs workshop reports on the panel, "EFRCs: A Response to Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination".

Nate Lewis, Director of DOE's Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub, the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), described what JCAP is and how it will partner with the EFRC community to accelerate the progress towards new solar fuels.

During a lunch plenary talk, Tilak Agerwala, Vice President of Systems at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, reflected on the innovation process by recounting how "Disruptive Innovations in Computing" enabled the creation of Watson, the computer that recently defeated human opponents on the Jeopardy! quiz show.

Eric Isaacs, Director of Argonne National Laboratory, outlined the role of EFRCs and National Laboratories in developing breakthrough energy technologies in his talk, "Perspectives in Energy Research: How can we change the game?".

Mark Little, Senior Vice President and Director of GE Global Research, presented the challenges and opportunities in "Innovating a sustainable energy future".

John Hennessy, President of Stanford University, gave his perspective on "The Role of Research Universities in helping solve our Energy Challenges: A case study at Stanford and SLAC".

Bill Brinkman, Director of the Office of Science, explained the motivation for creating the Energy Frontiers Research Centers program.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) talked about the importance of basic research and the scientists involved in the EFRCs for a bright future.

Congressman Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) challenged the attendees of "Science for our Nation's Energy Future" to be the face of energy research.

During the EFRC Summit, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) explained how the EFRCs play an important role in the U.S. energy innovation ecosystem.

More than 1,060 science and policy leaders from universities, national laboratories, industry and government attended the three-day event.

Secretary Steven Chu highlighted the need to "unleash America's science and research community" to achieve energy breakthroughs in his talk, "Energy Frontier Research Centers: Helping Win the Energy Innovation Race".

Secretary Steven Chu delivered the opening keynote address at the 2011 Science for Our Nation's Energy Future: EFRC Summit & Forum.

Steve Koonin, Under Secretary for Science, answered questions at the Science for Our Nation's Energy Future event.

Harriet Kung, Associate Director of Science for Basic Energy Sciences, welcomed participants to the 2011 Science for Our Nation's Energy Future: EFRC Summit & Forum.