“The Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation has consistently delivered on the Department of Energy’s goal to bring together researchers from multiple disciplines and institutions, coalescing them into highly productive teams that are tackling scientific problems once thought intractable while also training new generations of scientists,” Charlie Riordan, UD’s vice president for research, scholarship and innovation, said. “We wish the CCEI team much success in their continued development of critical energy technologies.”

Dion Vlachos, CCEI director and the Allan and Myra Ferguson Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UD, called the renewal an extraordinary opportunity to expand the boundaries of catalysis research.

“We’re delighted to be renewed again,” said Vlachos, who also serves as director of the Delaware Energy Institute. “This reflects the excellence of our catalysis programs and of our partners, the strong commitment and talent of our faculty, staff, students and postdocs and UD’s investment in the center. We’re looking forward to continuing our contributions to energy and sustainability, and the preparation of the future generation of scientists and engineers by advancing the frontiers of catalysis research.”

CCEI is one of the few original Energy Frontier Research Centers to still exist, and one of nine to receive renewal. According to DOE, the current cohort of EFRCs will lay the scientific groundwork for future advances in solar energy, nuclear energy, energy conversion and storage, electronics and computation, production of fuels and chemicals, carbon capture, and control of Earth’s subsurface.

In addition to UD, CCEI comprises the following institutions: Brookhaven National Laboratory; UC Santa Barbara; California Institute of Technology; Columbia University; Johns Hopkins University; University of Maryland; University of Massachusetts - Amherst; University of Minnesota; University of Pennsylvania; and Stony Brook University.