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The annual meetings of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and American Meteorological Society (AMS) are more than opportunities for researchers to share their science with their peers and make new connections. Eight researchers with ties to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling (EESM) Regional & Global Model Analysis (RGMA) program area received or will receive honors at the latest AGU and AMS annual meetings.

Despite growing up in the Chicago area, Yasleen Muñoz — currently studying environmental biology at Harold Washington City College in Chicago — knew very little about the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Lemont, Ill.

Stepping into the Aquatic Ecology

ecology

The interrelationships between living organisms and their environments.

Source: NASA earth observatory Source

Laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, you can hear the sound of bubbling water. It’s the background music for Louise Stevenson as she moves about her day, exploring what aquatic species like fish, algae or tiny crustaceans can tell us about how contaminants may be affecting the nation’s water.

The Arctic, Earth’s icy crown, is experiencing a climate crisis like no other. It’s heating up at a furious pace — four times faster than the rest of our planet. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are pulling back the curtain on the reduction of sunlight reflectivity, or albedo, which is supercharging the Arctic’s warming.

The United States is poised for a clean energy boom, with the new investments flowing from 2021's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act expected to unlock around $3 trillion in clean energy economic activity driven by the private sector. That growth creates a need for all kinds of technologies, including those related to clean hydrogen and hydrogen fuel

hydrogen fuel

A clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

cells, electric grid updates, long-duration energy storage, as well as carbon capture and storage.

A new crop of semifinalists has been selected to move on to the Set! Contest in the American-Made Solar Prize Round 7. Twenty teams from across the country were awarded cash prizes for their innovative solutions for making the solar industry more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible to all. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the semifinalists on Thursday, Jan. 11.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2),

carbon dioxide (CO2)

An important heat-trapping gas, also known as a greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions.

Source: NASA Source

a potent greenhouse gas, into carbon nanofibers, materials with a wide range of unique properties and many potential long-term uses. Their strategy uses tandem electrochemical

electrochemical

A discipline of chemistry concerned with the interconversion of electrical and chemical energy.

Source: Source

and thermochemical

thermochemical

A process or phenomenon that involves both thermal (heat) and chemical reactions.

Source: Source

reactions run at relatively low temperatures and ambient pressure.

In a computational study leveraging artificial intelligence

artificial intelligence

A machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.

Source: U.S. Department of State Source

(AI), scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory assessed 160 billion molecules, a number exceeding the people born in the entire span of human history. Their goal was to screen the molecules for suitability as liquid carriers of hydrogen.

National Mentoring Month is a great time to highlight one of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL’s) dedicated mentors, Laura Fierce, who has mentored graduate students in the prestigious Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program since joining the Laboratory in 2021. She currently mentors Nahin Ferdousi-Rokib, a University of Maryland doctoral student and experimentalist.

Alistair Rogers, an accomplished plant physiologist and leader at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been selected to serve as the next division director for the Climate and Ecosystem

ecosystem

A natural community of plants, animals, and other living organisms and the physical environment in which they live and interact.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

Sciences Division in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). His appointment will be effective March 4, 2024 and follows an extensive international search process.

The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize, now in its second round, is a $10 million prize competition designed to fast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers. Throughout the competition, teams are challenged to complete a live instructor-led course, network with investors, and learn more about growing their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects.

The National Renewable Energy

renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind. Renewable energy can be used for electricity generation, space and water heating and cooling, and transportation.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

Laboratory (NREL) just released its 2023 Standard Scenarios, which shows how the U.S. electricity sector might change through 2050. The scenarios can guide power system planning and enable dialogue using a common set of assumptions. The Standard Scenarios is one of several annually updated NREL products designed to support decision makers in the U.S. electricity sector.