Bakar Prize winner hopes to harness sun’s power
06/22/20 — Junqiao Wu, professor of material science and engineering, awarded campus's new $225,000 prize for real-world potential of his thermal-powered material transformations
Energy
Materials sciences professor Ramamoorthy Ramesh named to Royal Society
04/29/20 — Ramesh has created nanosized materials that can power small electrical devices with minimal amounts of energy
Researchers lead federal efforts to improve COVID-19 testing
04/24/20 — Rebecca Abergel, Paul Adams, and Adam Arkin are overseeing projects designed to boost coronavirus diagnostic technology
Dan Kammen elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
04/23/20 — Professor of energy and resources, public policy and nuclear engineering is one of 9 new Berkeley faculty members
What’s the future of nuclear power?
04/12/20 Climate One — Professor Per Peterson joins a panel of experts discussing whether nuclear energy should be revived or abandoned.
Can tiny, invisible particles help stop the spread of nuclear weapons?
03/12/20 — Researchers are closer than ever to deploying technology that can help detect the illicit production of plutonium, a key fuel for nuclear bombs
Researchers develop novel way to shrink light to detect ultra-tiny substances
02/20/20 — The research could lead to the development of ultra-sensitive devices that can quickly detect pathogens in human blood.
Ceder peeks into the battery pipeline
12/16/19 Berkeley Lab — From cobalt-free to sodium-ion, Berkeley Lab scientist and MSE professor Gerbrand Ceder evaluates some of the most promising battery technologies in development.
Heat energy leaps through empty space, thanks to quantum weirdness
12/11/19 — In a surprising new study, Berkeley researchers led by Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering, showed that heat energy can travel through a complete vacuum due to invisible quantum fluctuations, a discovery that could have profound implications for the design of computer chips.
Mirror mirror
10/25/19 — Researchers broke another record in thermophotovoltaics, raising the efficiency of converting heat into electricity from 23% to 29%.
Our energy grid is vulnerable; locally sourced power may be the answer
10/11/19 — Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier, adjunct professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, talks about the risks posed by the current energy grid and possible solutions moving forward, including solar-powered microgrids.
Eight Berkeley engineers honored as Siebel Scholars
09/25/19 — Eight Berkeley Engineering graduate students - five from bioengineering, two from computer science and one from energy science - have been named to the Siebel Scholars Foundation's 2020 class.
Making the invisible visible
07/22/19 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley researchers have developed a new type of sensor network that is affordable and capable of tracking soot (black carbon). With more than 100 custom-built sensors installed across West Oakland for 100 days, the team created the largest black carbon monitoring network deployed in a single city.
Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
07/17/19 — UC Berkeley researchers just broke another record in photovoltaic efficiency, an achievement that could bring ultralight engines that power drones for days and deep space probes for centuries.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority partnership advances ‘future energy’ educational program
05/04/19 — UC Berkeley and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) are teaming up to establish a new educational program to accelerate infrastructure systems for sustainable energy.
Going to extremes
05/01/19 — Researchers have developed a thermal regulator that improves the performance of lithium-ion batteries in extreme temperatures.
New hydrogen fuel catalyst
05/01/19 — Engineers used gelatin to create a hydrogen fuel catalyst that works just as efficiently as platinum but at a much lower cost.
Jiggly Jell-O makes powerful new hydrogen fuel catalyst
12/13/18 — A cheap and effective gelatin-based catalyst, developed by mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin and his Berkeley research team, can generate hydrogen fuel from water just as efficiently as platinum, the far more expensive current standard.
From waste heat to energy
11/14/18 — Researchers have developed a thin-film device that converts waste heat to energy, using pyroelectric energy conversion.
Berkeley engineers selected to modernize the grid
11/02/18 — The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has selected eighteen teams, including two with Berkeley Engineering researchers, to participate in the Grid Optimization Competition. which aims to develop new management software for the nation's electricity grid.