The Inorganic Catalyst Design Center, a federally funded Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) in the College of Science and Engineering, had its funding renewed in late June 2018. The purpose of the EFRCs is to strengthen US economic leadership and energy security. The Inorganic Catalyst Design Center’s mission is to discover new classes of catalytic materials for energy production, especially using computational methods. The Center received funding for a full four-year renewal period, one of only nine existing EFRCs to do so. The grant total for the four years is $12 million.
The Center’s Director is MSI PI Laura Gagliardi (Chemistry). Professor Gagliardi uses MSI for a number of projects that use computer models to study catalysis and gas separation in metal organic frameworks, actinide chemistry, and photovoltaic materials.
The Center partners with organizations throughout the nation, including Argonne National Laboratory, Clemson University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, NuMat Technologies, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of California Davis, and the University of Washington.
An article about the Center can be found on the University’s News site: University of Minnesota-based center awarded $12 million to continue energy materials research.