Feb. 11, 2022
MSU researcher teams up to help eliminate greenhouse gases
Jose Mendoza of Michigan State University is among the North American researchers who are working to remove greenhouse gases from the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans as part of the Scialog: Negative Emissions Science Initiative.
The assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science is among 20 researchers on eight cross-disciplinary teams that will share $1.2 million to advance environmental research. Their work is sponsored by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, with additional support from the Climate Pathfinders Foundation.
Mendoza said he has enjoyed his discussions with his peers on creating innovative solutions to eliminating greenhouse gases.
“Our team is quite interdisciplinary, and we all bring complementary expertise to the table. We need different views, given that the challenge is big,” he explained. “It would have been hard to find a chance to collaborate with the team members, if it wasn’t for this Scialog program."
This is Mendoza’s second year in Scialog, which is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance. Teams of two or three Fellows who have not previously collaborated compete for seed funding for high-risk, high-reward projects based on the innovative ideas that emerge at the conference.
Mendoza’s research focus is on quantum simulations, materials by design, machine learning and quantum computing algorithms.
His Scialog team members are Marta Hatzell, mechanical engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Kathryn Knowles, chemistry, University of Rochester. Their research focuses on photochemical amine production from N2 and CO2.
Scialog participants are encouraged to write proposals that depart from their current work to test out a new idea, try a new collaboration with someone whose approach is different, and push the boundaries of knowledge. Read more on the 2021Scialog Innovation teams here.
The third annual Negative Emissions Science meeting is scheduled for Nov. 9-12, in Tucson, Arizona.
