Research

Can we optimize how we cool our buildings without compromising campus comfort?

This question, the focus of a long-standing partnership between UC Davis Facilities Management and UC Davis Chemical Engineering (Process Systems Engineering), has resulted in savings, greener energy use and published research. 

Chemical engineering assistant professors Matthew Ellis, Harishankar Manikantan and Priya Shah were all named 2020-21 UC Davis Hellman Fellows.

The UC Davis Coffee Center is the world's first academic research center focused on coffee, aiming to do for coffee what UC Davis has done for beer and wine. Through its research, teaching and mentorship, the center plans to train the next generation of coffee professionals while improving the entire industry and making it more sustainable.

With the launch of the new National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded UC Davis/Berkeley Center for Rational Catalysis Synthesis, or CeRCaS, UC Davis is poised to become a leader in the field of catalysis. CeRCaS will bring together the resources and expertise of academia, industry and national laboratories to transform the way catalysts are designed and produced and to train students as the next generation of leaders in the field.

A new paper from associate professor Jiandi Wan’s group published in Science Advances proposes a potential solution to dendrite growth in rechargeable lithium metal batteries using microfluidics. In the paper, the group proved that flowing ions near the cathode can potentially expand the safety and lifespans of these next-generation rechargeable batteries.

UC Davis will play an important role in a new $274.5 million multi-institution center to develop reliable, sustainable and large-scale bioindustrial manufacturing and technology. The Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE) was awarded $87.5 million over 7 years by the Department of Defense (DoD), along with $187 million in additional funding from the 80+ companies, universities and organizations involved.

Is cultivated meat — essentially, animal protein grown under lab conditions — a nourishing prospect to help feed the world, or is it more sizzle than steak? A consortium of researchers at the University of California, Davis, aims to explore the long-term sustainability of cultivated meat, supported by a new grant of up to $3.55 million from the National Science Foundation Growing Convergence program, in addition to previous support from the Good Food Institute and New Harvest.