NEWS RELEASES

To meet ambitious U.S. Department of Energy targets for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), production of purpose-grown energy crops must ramp up significantly. Although researchers have made substantial progress in understanding the management and conversion of these crops, key knowledge gaps hold the industry back. Now, two new studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign help fill in the blanks for Miscanthus and switchgrass management. 

Princeton researchers have developed a diamond-based quantum sensor that reveals rich new information about magnetic phenomena in spaces smaller than a wavelength of light. Their new technique uncovers magnetic fluctuations beyond the reach of existing instruments and provides key insight into quantum materials such as graphene and superconductors — opening a new way to study condensed matter physics.

Chemist Bruce Moyer, a Corporate Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has won the 2025 Carl Hanson Award, the highest international recognition for achievement in solvent extraction. The International Solvent Extraction Community bestows the medal every three years based on nominations from the global community.

For more than 60 years, the High Flux Isotope Reactor has produced neutron beams for the benefit of society, creating real-world impacts that span energy security, quantum computing, healthcare, national defense and advanced materials. 

Veterans of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program are bringing their expertise to the Department of Energy’s High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, applying the same precision and discipline that powers the Navy’s fleets to America’s science, energy and security missions.

A groundbreaking new study has made significant contributions to the long-running vision of “materials that compute,” a concept that has evolved from the pioneering collaborations between researchers Balazs and Levitan. This vision aims to create materials capable of processing information in a manner similar to traditional computing systems, but with the added benefits of flexibility and adaptability inherent in physical materials.

A surprising discovery about a quantum well of germanium-tin with silicon-germanium-tin barriers points to the potential role of short-range ordering of atoms in semiconductor performance. 

A $2.5 million grant from the federal Department of Energy EPSCoR program will enable University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicists to investigate the use of ferroelectric oxides in emergent quantum phases. It also will provide support for early career faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students who will participate in the three-pronged research project.