Life-cycle design and costing of infrastructure and building, design of adaptive structural systems for building energy efficiency, design of large span complex curved structures for minimum material use

Urban design and planning: Architectural field theory, landscape architecture and ecology as models to revitalize the practices of urban design as related to energy and environmental issues

Improved batteries, energy storage; photovoltaics, wind power; laser processing and transport in materials with particular emphasis on shaping laser-material interactions

Directed evolution of algae for biofuel production, specifically the fast, consistent and high-volume production of oils; reduction in need for external nutrients such as nitrogen for biofuel production

Glacial-interglacial climate change; global carbon cycle; biogeochemistry and paleoclimatology

Optimal configurations for improved fuel cell operaton (producing electricity from hydrogen); hydrogen production; efficient electrochemical pumps for hydrogen purification; gasification to produce fuels from organic materials

Improving membrane fuel cells that convert H2 and O2 or alcohols into electricity; exploring proton exchange polymer membranes; charge transfer processes and materials chemistry for alternate energy schemes including solar photochemistry and electrochemistry; electrochemical and semiconductor based photoelectrochemical conversion of CO2 to liquid fuels and syngas; CO2 storage in new materials; water splitting for hydrogen production

Measurements and simulations of thermal exchanges between buildings and the atmosphere; urban microclimatology and hydrology; boundary layer meteorology and the representation of the atmospheric boundary layer in weather and climate models; environmental fluid mechanics and turbulence; nested multiscale modeling; wireless sensor networks

Urban history; city planning and preservation planning

General energy studies; fission and fusion; climate change; battery technology; policy

Commodity and energy markets (e.g. oil, electricity, natural gas, coal); market mechanisms to control greenhouse gas emissions; game theoretic analyses of the energy/emissions markets with emphasis on the policy implications of their designs

Design of new materials for solar energy conversion to electricity and fuels; lightweight metal alloy design for fuel-efficient vehicles; clean, efficient combustion of biofuels; solid oxide fuel cell cathode design for efficient electricity production; robust materials for fusion reactor walls

Synthesis and discovery of new superconducting and thermoelectric materials

Ecohydrology: interactions between structural patterns of vegetation and hydrological dynamics at local and regional scales in drylands; simulation modeling of ecohydrological controls of water balance in water-limited landscapes

Ground-water hydrology; geological sequestration of CO2; simulation methods for multi-phase flow in porous media; ecohydrology; contaminant transport simulation

Energy efficiency in communication networks, including data center networks, wireless cellular/femto networks, and broadband DSL/PON networks. Algorithm design and implementation for energy-performance’s Pareto optimal tradeoff. Techniques include stochastic optimization, distributed control, and dynamic programming. Interactions with the rest of the networking experimentation infrastructure at the EDGE Lab

New methods for heating plasmas for fusion applications

Communications, control, security (“smart grid”)

Carbon capture and storage; molecular modeling of hydrate melting and formation as possible approach to carbon sequestration; molecular modeling of heterogeneous ice nucleation for improved weather and climate models; computational modeling of phase behavior of water, carbon dioxide and salt mixtures for carbon capture and storage and geothermal energy production; computational investigation of water in nafion membranes for fuel cells; desalination with gas hydrates for improved fresh water production and greater energy efficiency

Climate-model development; cloud and convective processes in the atmospheric general circulation; role of clouds in climate and climate change

Design of new catalytic methods for the efficient synthesis of bioactive compounds and organic materials

Petroleum and non-petroleum derived transportation fuels and fuel blends, their production, chemical kinetics, energy security, and net carbon cycle emission impacts; ignition, combustion, and air pollutant emissions generation/abatement; syngas/high-hydrogen content fuels for advanced gas turbine power generation; fire safety related issues on earth and in micro gravity environments

Statistics, financial econometrics, economics, risk management, analysis of big data, computational biology, biostatistics, longitudinal and functional data analysis, time series, probabilistic tropical cyclone risk modeling

Using inorganic polyphosphates for the bioremediation of toxic metals

Plasma physics with applications to nuclear fusion energy: plasma waves, current drive, laser/plasma interaction; atomic radiation in plasmas; petroleum refining; statistical inference and pattern recognition

Optimization-based approaches to energy issues in U.S. transportation: novel thermochemical and biochemical processes to convert coal, biomass, natural gas to liquid fuel (CBGTL); optimizing CBGTL supply chain; long-term strategic planning of hybrid energy systems, forecasts of technology development, demand behavior, and resources variability

Energy-efficient data centers, servers, networks, and mobile systems; distributed systems and geographically-replicated applications

Urban planning and development of sustainable infrastructures for the 21st century

Nuclear power (fission/fusion); nuclear fuel cycle/nonproliferation; neutronics calculations for new systems (e.g. small modular reactors; safeguards and verification; energy policy)

Mid-infrared sensing applications in environment using high-performance quantum cascade lasers; instrument development for remote sensing of pollutants; field deployments of environmental sensors; laser development for mid-infrared, trace-chemical sensors

Role of environment in human health; social and economic factors on adult health and the physiological pathways through which these factors operate

Experimental plasma physics, plasma heating and transport for fusion energy. Edge power handling. Fusion reactor and power plant designs, including tokamak, spherical torus, and stellarator configurations. Socio-economic aspects of nuclear energy, particularly nuclear proliferation risks

Biocatalysis of water oxidation for efficient hydrogen production

Control of surface structures for multiple applications, including catalysis and evolving microstructures in solid oxide fuel cells

Political and economic analysis of energy security in the Middle East, including nonconventional oil and alternative energy and fuel sources

Biogeochemistry, climate change; ecosystem analysis; emergence and maintenance of geographically broad patterns in cycling of nutrients and greenhouse trace gases; local-scale microbial processes; global-scale controls on ecosystem structure and function

Biogeochemical cycles applied to environmental remediation, especially water quality and soils. Bioremediation of uranium-contaminated groundwater; biogeochemical cycling in wetlands including immobilization of toxic metals; methane emissions from rice paddies; nitrogen transformation in urban streams and hydrological infrastructure; linking water quality models with climate change models

Sensors to reduce electricity and heating costs in buildings; power/thermal analysis, low-power circuits; optimization and management of circuits and systems

Sustainable energy, propulsion, and functional nano-materials; high-hydrogen syngas for turbines; efficient kinetic models of biofuel combustion for ground transportation; efficient ignition systems for high-speed propulsion with non-equilibrium plasma discharge; validated surrogate fuel model for jet fuels; functional nanomaterials for solar cells and batteries

Organic thin films and organic electronics for photovoltaics: organic/organic heterojunctions that constitute the core of organic photovoltaic cells; interfaces between organic films and conducting oxides or polymer-functionalized surfaces that constitute the high and low work function anode and cathode of these solar cells; hybrid organic/inorganic semiconductor solar cells; chemical doping that increases carrier mobility for improved charge collection

Nonlinear dynamics tools and multiphase flow modeling are used to understand the interplay of reaction and transport in PEM fuel cells. Multiscale modeling of complex systems with applications to chemical reactions, transport processes, and agent-based models of behavioral dynamics and urban growth

Fabrication and characterization of novel fuel cell electrodes; structure, reactivity, and catalysis of platinum alloys; surface reactions of plasma facing components of fusion reactor walls; reaction mechanisms of iron nanoparticles for heavy metal sequestration in groundwater cleanup

Fundamentals of combustion, with applications in propulsion, energy and environmental issues; combustion of fuel droplets and sprays; incineration of hazardous wastes; chemistry of flame-generated pollutants; formulation of high-performance propulsion fuels

Ocean turbulence and mixing; understanding small-scale turbulent mixing processes through high-resolution numerical simulations combined with theoretical analysis; deriving new physically-based parameterizations to help improve climate simulations

Design/control of new kinds of sustainable and adaptive environmental sensing and observation systems (special focus on marine environments/ocean)

Ecosystem and biosphere-level maintenance of macroscopic patterns and processes; evolution of diversification; mathematical modeling; evolution and ecology of dispersal; strain structure in influenza; public goods problems and environmental economics

Natural hazards and risk assessment, stochastic modeling, wind engineering, coastal engineering, climate change impact and adaptation, and built environment and sustainability; the study of tropical cyclones and associated weather extremes (e.g., strong winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surge), how they change with climate, and how their impact on the natural and built environment can be mitigated

Printable conductive inks for scalable plastic photovoltaics and electronics; processing-structure-function relationships of electrically-active plastics; development of processing methodologies for printed electronics

Design and programming of low-energy computing systems

Sustainable aviation through advanced multidisciplinary design optimization of airframes and air traffic management systems; design optimization of ship hulls for maximum efficiency; aerodynamic design optimization of wind turbines, propellers, fans, compressors and turbines; computational fluid dynamics of compressible reactive flows

Energy-efficient computer servers, including optimization frameworks for improving green energy usage in multi-data-center internet services and power-performance optimizations for improving energy-proportionality within data centers

Issues of international migration caused by environmental change

Application of queueing theory to optimize the use of individual energy storage components. Stochastic networks; dynamic optimization; dynamical systems

Science-based development of long term air quality policy; linkages between air pollution, climate change, health and energy; climatic and health benefits of black carbon (soot) mitigation; impact of surface ozone on crop yields; impact of aerosols on global air quality, premature mortality and radiative forcing

Piezoelectric energy harvesting; biointerfaced nanotechnology for energy; biointerfaced nanosensors

Variability in climate and terrestrial biosphere; impacts of deforestation

High-sensitivity detection of pollutants and environmental contaminants (CO, NO2, etc); combustion control by lasers and microwaves

Climate adaptation design and engineering, particularly in coastal urban regions

Thermoelectrics, fundamental studies of superconductivity, novel superconducting and magnetic materials, topological insulators

Science and policy of the atmosphere, particularly climate change and its impacts; effects of global warming on ice sheets and sea level

Interactions between the global biosphere and climate; carbon mitigation; effects of global vegetation on climate; large-scale measurement of natural and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions

Molecular modeling of phase behavior and transport properties of CO2 / brine mixtures, which is of fundamental importance in understanding the long-term fate of CO2 injected in underground rock formations for carbon capture and storage; computational studies of nafion fuel cell membranes

Geochemical reactions important in geologic sequestration of CO2 in deep saline aquifers, especially long-term reaction kinetics; contamination of water and soils with organic pollutants; non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Development of high figure of merit thermoelectric materials; exploration of topological insulator compounds for efficient thermoelectric materials

Energy-saving techniques for wireless communication networks; green radio; smart grid

High-dimensional stochastic optimization for: Storage of energy from wind and solar; stochastic, multiscale energy policy models for energy investment decisions; control of smart grids; management of plug-in electric vehicles; control of heterogeneous storage devices; R&D portfolio optimization; heavy-tailed models of electricity prices; and finding optimal demand response strategies in the presence of time-varying prices

Experimental plasma physics, including study of stability, turbulence, transport, and self-organization in plasmas, for use in fusion energy

Detailed numerical models of coupled multi-phase compositional thermo-poromechanical effects including leaky wells and discrete fracture models to assess the safety of CO2 injection in deep brine aquifers

Biofuel and hydrogen production using clostridia bacteria; sustainable solvent production from cellulose

Mathematical and numerical modeling of Earth’s climate system; climate variations and change due to natural and human-influenced causes such as greenhouse gases, pollutants e.g., ozone and aerosols, land-use, solar irradiation, volcanic eruptions; hydrologic cycle including water vapor, clouds, precipitation and soil moisture; physical, chemical and biogeochemical interactions in the climate system of relevance to society; detection and attribution of climate change using models and observations; satellite remote sensing of climate; climate and air quality; climate information and data for planners and decision makers

Synthesis, processing, and reprocessing/recycling of polymeric materials, as part of a larger research effort focused on microstructured and nanostructured polymers

Green information technology and energy-efficient data centers with a focus on computer networks; methods for selectively powering down network equipment; network designs that enable reduced energy consumption on end-host computers; wide-area load balancing across geo-replicated data centers

Ecohydrology; hydrologic dynamics of ecological process and patterns; world trade of virtual water; water for food; hydrologic controls of biodiversity in river basins and savannas

Control of plasmas in nuclear fusion; modeling of fluid flows from a dynamical systems point of view

Fundamental processes controlling the ocean-atmosphere distribution of climatically important chemicals, particularly carbon dioxide, and how these have changed through time; global carbon cycle, ocean biogeochemical dynamics, ocean circulation, paleoceanography

Carbon sequestration: Investigation of structure, properties and corrosion kinetics of cement used to cap deep underground wells that store captured CO2; measurements of permiability of shale to assess the safety of CO2 storage in deep brine aquifers

Photovoltaics; use of density functional theory and molecular dynamics to improve efficiency of heterogeneous photocatalysis on semiconducting metal oxides; dye-sensitized solar cells

Behavioral interventions; reasoning, judgment, and decision-making, and issues related to behavioral economics, with an emphasis on descriptive studies of how people make judgments and decisions in situations of conflict and uncertainty

Earth’s environmental history; interactions among climate, ocean biogeochemistry, and atmospheric carbon dioxide; the global nitrogen cycle, today and in the past

Energy-efficient software in cloud computing and large-scale computing

Game-theoretic analyses of the energy/emissions markets with emphasis on policy implications; economics of exhaustible resources, including modeling of shifts in energy markets toward more expensive alternative sources such as solar; dynamic games models to help design incentives for greener fuel production; financialization of energy and commodities markets; interplay between power and emissions markets

Environmental sensor systems; urban environments, hydrology and meteorology; extreme floods, including the impact of urban environments

Design and testing of vertical axis wind turbines; Laboratory simulations of atmospheric boundary layers; Wildfire modeling, prediction and control

Sustainable infrastructure for developed and developing countries: solar cells and light emitting devices for urban and rural environments; recycling of agricultural and industrial wastes into heat-absorbing walls; filters for safe drinking water. Materials science for technologies that are compatible with and consider the impact on local cultures

Global energy system response to global and local environmental and security constraints; carbon dioxide capture from fossil fuels and storage in geological formations; nuclear power; energy efficiency in buildings; acceleration of deployment of advanced technologies in developing countries

Green methods for achieving efficient chemical syntheses by approximating the efficiency with which nature creates architecturally complex, biologically active natural products

Modeling and experiments related to inertial confinement fusion and high energy density physics

Customized form factors for batteries, capacitors and supercapacitors, failure analysis, in-situ/in-operando characterization, conformal high throughput processes, distributed process monitoring, multi-scale power device integration

Erosion/corrosion in water flows for cooling in fusion reactors; fluid dynamics of lithium for protecting inner walls of fusion reactors; microfluidic studies relevant to water purification

Pre-combustion CO2 separation; hydrate-based desalination technology for improved energy efficiency; carbon capture technology planning through use of large-scale simulations of reacting multiphase flows on large computational platforms

Fundamental studies of light-matter interactions in complex solid state media; Design of novel nanophotonic and semiconductor media for optoelectronic applications.

Statistical modeling to examine evidence for global warming in local weather data

Environmental sensors and computation platforms (low-power circuits and systems)

Nuclear nonproliferation, including security aspects of nuclear energy programs. Technical and institutional dimensions of proliferation risks associated with the use of nuclear power on a broader global scale and strategies for minimizing those risks

Environmental aspects of electrical engineering; solar energy conversion; devices, processes, and materials for large-area electronics; sensor skins for civil infrastructure

Energy efficient design of computing architectures and software systems; green computing; minimization of computer systems’ environmental impact; sustainable service and decommissioning of computer components; biodegradable computers.

Environmental policy; conservation of biodiversity; effects of human adaptive responses to climate change on biodiversity; impact of palm oil (for food and biofuel) on biodiversity; climate change and spread of invasive plants

Hydroclimatology with an emphasis on land atmospheric interactions; terrestrial remote sensing; seasonal hydrologic climate forecasts, including land-climate teleconnections; terrestrial water and energy balances and fluxes over a range of spatial and temporal scales; validating satellite retrievals on land surface states; drought prediction

Laser spectroscopic sensing for energy and environmental applications; environmental trace-gas sensor networks; active and passive remote atmospheric sensing

Financialization of commodity and energy markets; Effects of financial market frictions; Behavioral finance

Single-molecule studies of lignocellulose degradation

Fundamental studies of the origin of superconductivity, particularly in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, to aid search for materials that exhibit superconductivity at higher temperatures; materials physics

Atmospheric chemistry; atmospheric measurements of greenhouse gases and air pollutants; emissions of carbon and nitrogen to the atmosphere; compact, laser-based sensor development