As the need to find climate change solutions becomes ever more urgent, Cornell chemists are leading the way with innovative and far-reaching discoveries, including better electric batteries, carbon capture technologies, renewable plastics and improvements in solar cells.
"We firmly believe that chemistry has the potential to help solve many of the world's problems. At Cornell, we're working on those solutions," says Geoffrey Coates, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).
"I remain deeply optimistic that the technology, the science that we can discover, will lead to long term viable solutions," says Andrew Musser, assistant professor of chemistry.
The College's chemistry department is well known for its sustainability-related research and its faculty have been recognized with numerous awards, from a Macarthur "Genius Grant" to the Enrico Fermi Award. Not only does this research help to attract ground-breaking faculty, but it also brings in graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with similar interests. Klarman Fellow Alexandra Easley said the department's strength in multiple areas, including sustainable polymers, carbon dioxide capture and batteries, sold her on Cornell. "To get all of that in a single department is not common," she says.
Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.
