News Archive


2021 News Releases

View News Clips By Year
202420232022Archive
10 Jacobs School faculty among 2021 list of most highly cited researchers in the world

10 Jacobs School faculty among 2021 list of most highly cited researchers in the world

November 30, 2021

Ten professors at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering are among the world’s most influential researchers in their fields. The professors, Ludmil Alexandrov, Trey Ideker, Rob Knight, Prashant Mali, Ying Shirley Meng, Shyue Ping Ong, Bernhard O. Palsson, Joseph Wang, Sheng Xu and Liangfang Zhang, are amone 51 professors and researchers at UC San Diego named in the prestigious list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2021. Full Story


Researchers determine optimum pressure to improve the performance of lithium metal batteries

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


DOE awards UC San Diego nanoengineers $1.25M to improve batteries for EVs

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

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


Grow and eat your own vaccines?

Grow and eat your own vaccines?

September 16, 2021

The future of vaccines may look more like eating a salad than getting a shot in the arm. Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Riverside and Carnegie Mellon University are studying whether they can turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories. One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain stability during transport and storage. If this new project is successful, plant-based mRNA vaccines — which can be eaten — could overcome this challenge with the ability to be stored at room temperature.  Full Story


How a plant virus could protect and save your lungs from metastatic cancer

How a plant virus could protect and save your lungs from metastatic cancer

September 14, 2021

Using a virus that grows in black-eyed pea plants, researchers developed a new therapy that could keep metastatic cancers from spreading to the lungs, as well as treat established tumors in the lungs. Full Story


These fridge-free COVID-19 vaccines are grown in plants and bacteria

These fridge-free COVID-19 vaccines are grown in plants and bacteria

September 7, 2021

Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed COVID-19 vaccine candidates that can take the heat. Their key ingredients? Viruses from plants or bacteria. Full Story


UC San Diego nanoengineers receive $2.7M NSF grant to make battery manufacturing waste-free

UC San Diego nanoengineers receive $2.7M NSF grant to make battery manufacturing waste-free

September 1, 2021

A team led by nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego has been awarded a $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an eco-friendly and low-cost manufacturing process for sodium all-solid-state batteries. The process will be used to create large-scale energy storage systems—for buildings, electric grids, and wind and solar farms—that are more efficient, affordable and safe. Full Story


Imperfections in jewels used as sensors for new quantum materials

Imperfections in jewels used as sensors for new quantum materials

June 18, 2021

UC San Diego Department of Physics Assistant Professor Chunhui Rita Du is a condensed matter experimentalist whose research takes advantage of impurities in diamonds. Du’s research group leverages the red, yellow and blue colors that result from diamond defects to develop sensors that can evaluate the properties of specialized materials down to the nanometer level. Full Story


Stabilizing gassy electrolytes could make ultra-low temperature batteries safer

Stabilizing gassy electrolytes could make ultra-low temperature batteries safer

June 7, 2021

A new technology could dramatically improve the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries that operate with gas electrolytes at ultra-low temperatures. By keeping electrolytes from vaporizing, the technology can prevent pressure buildup inside the battery that leads to swelling and explosions. Full Story


Coronavirus-like particles could ensure reliability of simpler, faster COVID-19 tests

Coronavirus-like particles could ensure reliability of simpler, faster COVID-19 tests

March 2, 2021

Rapid COVID-19 tests are on the rise to deliver results faster to more people, and scientists need an easy, foolproof way to know that these tests work correctly and the results can be trusted. Nanoparticles that pass detection as the novel coronavirus could be just the ticket. Such coronavirus-like nanoparticles, developed by nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego, would serve as something called a positive control for COVID-19 tests. Full Story


Weakness is strength for this low-temperature battery

Weakness is strength for this low-temperature battery

February 25, 2021

Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have discovered new fundamental insights for developing lithium metal batteries that perform well at ultra-low temperatures; mainly, that the weaker the electrolyte holds on to lithium ions, the better. By using such a weakly binding electrolyte, the researchers developed a lithium metal battery that can be repeatedly recharged at temperatures as low as -60 degrees Celsius—a first in the field. Full Story


IMDD Seminar: The Innovation Ecosystem at UC San Diego

IMDD Seminar: The Innovation Ecosystem at UC San Diego

January 25, 2021

Paul Roben, Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Commercialization at UC San Diego, will provide information on how the Office for Innovation and Commercialization can help you translate your reserach from the lab to the marketplace on Friday, February 5.  Full Story


IMDD Seminar: Introduction and Materials for Quantum Communication

IMDD Seminar: Introduction and Materials for Quantum Communication

January 19, 2021

Dr. Bhagawan Sahu from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UC San Diego will give an IMDD Seminar presentation titled 'Introduction and Materials for Quantum Communication on January 28 at 10 am. Full Story


New Method Makes Better Predictions of Material Properties Using Low Quality Data

New Method Makes Better Predictions of Material Properties Using Low Quality Data

January 14, 2021

By combining large amounts of low-fidelity data with smaller quantities of high-fidelity data, nanoengineers at UC San Diego have developed a machine learning method to more accurately predict the properties of new materials including, for the first time, disordered materials. Full Story


News Archive