2026 Research Grants

Synthesis of Biodegradable Plastics by Engineered Enzymes Enabled by Machine Learning

PI: Frances Arnold
Research Team: Ethan Quinn
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Division of Biology and Biological Engineering
Climate Science Initiative and Ecology and Biosphere Engineering Initiative

Sustainable large-scale synthesis of useful biodegradable plastics can be facilitated by evolved enzymes created through machine learning guided directed evolution.

Accelerated Discovery of Earth-Abundant Zintl-Compound Semiconductors for High-Voltage, High-Radiative-Efficiency Solar Cells with >30% Efficiency

PI: Harry Atwater
Research Team: Mina Mandic and Amelyn Phang
Division of Engineering and Applied Science
Sunlight to Everything Initiative

We propose an accelerated discovery program to synthesize and characterize a new class of solar energy materials, Zintl-compound semiconductors, for high-efficiency photovoltaic applications through combinatorial thin-film synthesis, and closed-loop characterization, targeting high radiative efficiency and tunable bandgaps for single- and tandem-junction solar cell applications.