Energy research wins grant
Harvard chemist Cynthia Friend has been awarded a major center grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences’ Energy Frontier Research Centers program, which is designed “to accelerate the scientific breakthroughs needed to build the 21st-century energy economy.” Friend, the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and director of Harvard’s Rowland Institute, is leading an effort to develop new methods to reduce energy consumption in the production of industrial chemicals, which now accounts for an astounding 25 percent of the world’s energy consumption, said Friend. “This is very exciting,” Friend said, noting that the funding of $2.8 million per year for four years will allow her “to do the research in collaboration with scientists at Harvard, at other universities, and at premier DOE national laboratories.” The work being directed by Friend and deputy director Efthimios (Tim) Kaxiras, the John Hasbrouck Van Vleck Professor of Pure...