DOE to hand out grants to scientists

The U.S. Department of Energy has proven its deep pockets for sustainable technologies this week. On Thursday, the DOE announced 69 scientists from across the nation will receive up to $85 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for five-year research grants as part of DOE’s new Early Career Research Program. The new effort is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.

One grantee is in Oregon. Patrick Yin Chiang, a scientist at Oregon State University will receive support for his project, “Sustainable Silicon ‐ Energy‐Efficient VLSI Interconnect for Extreme‐Scale Computing,” which is being funded by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research.

The news is being seen by some as a shift in focus for the department toward developing high-level green-collar talent.

Read the Venture Beat report and take a look at the Department of Energy's announcement which includes a full list of awardees.