Director Alivisatos has announced the awards for the FY2015 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. A total of about $24.9 million was allocated for 82 projects from a field of 169 proposals. Of these, 39 are new and 43 are continuation projects. A significant portion of the projects focus on fundamental science and translational research in energy science and technology applications, address the use of large-scale computation and data science, and aid in the mechanistic understanding of multi-scale interactions among molecules, microbes, plants, metazoans, and/or the abiotic environment, and their feedbacks.
Molecular Foundry Staff Scientists, Jeff Neaton, Caroline Ajo-Franklin and Brett Helms, were included among those receiving LDRD funds. Neaton, the Molecular Foundry Director, was awarded an LDRD for his project Computational Design of Smart Complex Oxides with Tunable Quantum Phases. Ajo-Franklin, from the Biological Nanostructures Facility, received funds for her project on Probing Dynamics of Electron Transfer for Microbial-based Energy Interconversion. Helms, from the Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis Facility, was awarded an LDRD for his project on Responsive Nanoparticle Assemblies.
