DOE makes largest Danforth Campus research award ...( Washington University and the Donald...)

Washington University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have received two awards totaling $35 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to do research on novel energy initiatives. At $20 million, the Washington University award is the largest ever received on the Danforth Campus. The $15 million for the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is the largest the organization has ever received.

Washington University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center will be home to two of 46 new multi-million-dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) announced April 27 by the White House in conjunction with a speech delivered by President Barack Obama at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

The EFRCs, which will pursue advanced scientific research on energy, are being established by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations and private firms across the nation.

As an EFRC, WUSTL will receive a five-year, $20 million award from the DOE to establish the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) and study forms of energy based on the principles of light harvesting and energy funneling. Plans are to house the center at the Stephen F. and Camilla T. Brauer Hall, scheduled to open in 2010.

Robert Blankenship, Ph.D., the Markey Distinguished Professor of biology and of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, will be director of the Washington University program. He will coordinate the efforts of 16 other principal investigators from around the world. Dewey Holten, Ph.D., professor of chemistry, will be associate director.

The center comes under the umbrella of WUSTL's International Center for Advanced Research in Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES).

"For the St. Louis region to receive two Department of Energy awards represents a great opportunityto advance bioenergy research. These awards are in recognition of the le
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