COVID-19 Updates
Please continue to wear a mask, maintain physical distance and participate in weekly testing and daily screening. Visit the Return to Learn website for more safety guidelines.
Franklin Antonio Hall News
Donors committed to student success bring Minerva's Cafe and Charles Lee Powell Foundation Terrace to Franklin Antonio Hall
December 2, 2021
Located on the first floor of UC San Diego’s new Franklin Antonio Hall engineering facility, Minerva’s Café and the Charles Lee Powell Foundation Terrace will play a key role in enriching the university experience for generations of students – the future technology leaders who will tackle society’s toughest challenges. Full Story
ServiceNow supports student scholarships, computer science at UC San Diego with $1.25M gift
November 30, 2021
Software company ServiceNow, which was founded in San Diego in 2004, is now investing in the local computer science and engineering talent ecosystem through a $1.25 million gift to the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. With Chancellor's Scholarship matching funds, the total impact of the gift is $1.75 million. Full Story
Researchers determine optimum pressure to improve the performance of lithium metal batteries
October 18, 2021
A team of materials scientists and chemists has determined the proper stack pressure that lithium metal batteries, or LMBs, need to be subjected to during battery operation in order to produce optimal performance. The team, which includes researchers from the University of California San Diego, Michigan State University, Idaho National Laboratory and the General Motors Research and Development Center, presents their findings in the Oct. 18 issue of Nature Energy. Full Story
New Research Center Brings Genomic Medicine to Individuals of Admixed Ancestry
October 12, 2021
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have been awarded $11.7 million to launch the Genetic & Social Determinants of Health: Center for Admixture Science and Technology (CAST) to address this issue. CAST will use the largest genomic datasets of individuals with diverse ancestry, in combination with socioeconomic data, to better predict health and disease in admixed individuals. Full Story
DOE awards UC San Diego nanoengineers $1.25M to improve batteries for EVs
September 27, 2021
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $1.25 million to nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego to improve the electrolytes that carry ions in lithium-sulfur batteries. The researchers will partner with General Motors and Ampcera Inc, a solid-state battery materials and technology company. Full Story
A new solid-state battery surprises the researchers who created it
September 23, 2021
Engineers created a new type of battery that weaves two promising battery sub-fields into a single battery. The battery uses both a solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode, making it a silicon all-solid-state battery. The initial rounds of tests show that the new battery is safe, long lasting, and energy dense. It holds promise for a wide range of applications from grid storage to electric vehicles. Full Story
Energizing Plastics Renewability, Recycling Efforts
October 30, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Jon Pokorski $2 million in funding to develop a new kind of biodegradable plastic—one filled with bacterial spores that will aid in breaking down the material at the end of its life-cycle. Co-leading the project will be UC San Diego bioengineer Adam Feist. Full Story
Designing batteries for easier recycling could avert a looming e-waste crisis
October 26, 2020
As concern mounts over the impacts of climate change, many experts are calling for greater use of electricity as a substitute for fossil fuels. Powered by advancements in battery technology, the number of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on U.S. roads is increasing. This, coupled with a growing volume of battery-powered phones, watches, laptops, wearable devices and other consumer technologies, leave us wondering: What will happen to all these batteries once they wear out? Full Story
UC San Diego Launches Institute for Materials Discovery and Design
October 9, 2020
Climate change, public health and equal access to food and water are some of the biggest challenges facing humanity--and materials science can help provide solutions for them all. That was the message researchers shared during the launch of the Institute for Materials Discovery and Design (IMDD) at the University of California San Diego, held virtually Sept. 29. Full Story
Toward all-solid-state lithium metal batteries
September 17, 2020
New work published in September 2020 in the journal Joule, led by researchers in the lab of UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Shirley Meng, will help explain this stability. In particular, the work unravels some of the mystery of the interface between lithium metal and LiPON. Full Story