Takeuchi Team Earns Secretary of Energy Achievement Award
Esther S. Takeuchi, distinguished professor and William and Jane Knapp endowed chair in energy and the environment at Stony Brook University, was honored January 24 along with a team of scientists with the Secretary of Energy Achievement Award. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm honored 44 teams and five individuals with the award.
Takeuchi, distinguished professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences and in materials science and chemical engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, is a battery researcher with a joint appointment at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook. She was honored for her role on an 80-member team of scientists and support staff from across the DOE National Laboratory complex who facilitated eight virtual panel discussions as part of a Congressional briefing series entitled “Driving U.S. Competitiveness & Innovation: A New Era of Science for Transformative Industry.”
The team created a platform for American industry leaders and national laboratory scientists to speak directly with Congressional staffers. Their goal was to discuss the productivity of public-private collaborations to accelerate emergent technologies and American leadership in artificial intelligence, microelectronics, quantum information sciences, the bioeconomy, and materials and chemistry for clean energy.
“These awards are among the highest forms of internal, non-monetary recognition DOE federal and contractor employees can receive,” Secretary Granholm said in a statement. “They are bestowed on individuals and teams in recognition of service which goes above and beyond, and for contributions having lasting impacts on both DOE and on our great nation. Along with the entire DOE leadership team, I am so proud of the accomplishments of our award recipients. Their commitment to achieving DOE’s mission is an inspiration.”
“I was delighted to participate in the topic of ‘Materials and Chemistry for Clean Energy,’” Takeuchi said. “This forum provided a venue to discuss the opportunity for impact of federally funded research and the national labs in strengthening U.S. industrial competitiveness. My discussions featured energy storage as critical to the clean energy transformation including electrifying transportation and adoption of clean energy generation.”
This effort highlighted how capabilities at DOE National Laboratories and their User Facilities (including the National Synchrotron Light Source II and Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven Lab) have been used to advance cutting-edge industries and American technical leadership. The discussions also emphasized how partnerships between DOE-supported researchers and American companies can accelerate the nation’s competitiveness and innovation and address workforce development challenges to prepare for these emergent industries in ways that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Read more at the BNL website.