ARPA-E Program Director Dr. William Horak Q&A Blog Thumbnail
Meet the Program Director: Dr. William Horak

Dr. William Horak  currently serves as a Program Director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He comes to ARPA-E from Brookhaven National Lab, where he worked for 40 years. He served in leadership roles as the Chair of the Energy Science and Technology Department and as Chair of the Nuclear Science and Technology Department. He was part of the DOE team that analyzed the Chernobyl accident and managed numerous programs in nuclear safety, international safeguards, and energy-systems development. What brought you to ARPA-E? I had worked with ARPA-E on workshops…


ARPA-E Investor Updates Volume 12 Syzygy Plasmonics
ARPA-E Investor Update Vol. 12: Syzygy Plasmonics' All-Electric Photoreactor

ARPA-E awardee Syzygy Plasmonics recently raised $76 million in Series C funding from Carbon Direct Capital along with Aramco Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Lotte Chemical, and Toyota Ventures. Early investors in Syzygy also joined the round, including EVOK Innovations, The Engine, Equinor Ventures, Goose Capital, Horizons Ventures, Pan American Energy, and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. Syzygy previously raised over $35 million in public and private funding for their novel technology. Syzygy’s breakthrough technology provides a deep decarbonization platform that relies on…


Dr. Laurent Pilon
Meet the Program Director: Dr. Laurent Pilon

Dr. Laurent Pilon currently serves as a Program Director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He comes to ARPA-E from the University of California, Los Angeles where he is a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. His area of research focused on the nexus of interfacial and transport phenomena, radiative heat transfer, and material science for the development of sustainable energy conversion, storage, and efficiency technologies. What brought you to ARPA-E? First, the recent fires and the major drought in California gave me a sense of…


ARPA-E Investor Update Volume 11 Brimstone Energy
ARPA-E Investor Update Vol. 11: Brimstone Energy's Carbon-Negative Cement

ARPA-E awardee Brimstone Energy raised $55 million in Series A funding in a round co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and DCVC in April of 2022. This is one of the largest ever Series A rounds for a materials-science startup and follows Brimstone’s $5.1 million seed round raised in November of 2021. Brimstone showcased their technology as part of the First Movers Coalition at 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Brimstone Energy’s CEO Dr. Cody Finke presented their breakthrough commercially scalable, environmentally friendly process for…


2022 calendar
ARPA-E’s 2022 Wrapped

2022 saw a series of exciting achievements at ARPA-E. Now, at year’s end, I want to take a moment to recap and appreciate the hard work of our team members, awardees, supporters, and other stakeholders. Thank you for a wonderful year of driving impactful energy innovation. New Programs In 2022, ARPA-E launched four new focused programs covering a wide range of energy applications, several second phases of existing programs in areas such as electric aviation and floating offshore wind, and three potentially disruptive Exploratory Topics. We also announced selections for three of our most…


ARPA-E NAI Fellows Blog - Program Directors and PIs
ARPA-E Program Directors and Principal Investigators named in National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows Class of 2022

ARPA-E Principal Investigators Dr. Wei Chen, Dr. Ayman El-Refaie, Dr. Fang Zheng Peng, Dr. Eric D. Wachsman, and Dr. Joseph Wang were recently announced as National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows. NAI recognizes academic inventors who demonstrate a prolific spirit of innovation and whose inventions make a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and societal welfare. Learn more about the Principal Investigators’ (PIs) ARPA-E projects below👇 PI Dr. Wei Chen’s DIFFERENTIATE project at UT Arlington develops a machine learning-enhanced mixed-variable…


New ARPA-E Director Dr. Evelyn Wang
ARPA-E Welcomes New Director Dr. Evelyn Wang

On December 22, the United States Senate confirmed Dr. Evelyn N. Wang as the next Director of ARPA-E. Dr. Wang comes to ARPA-E from MIT where she served as the Ford Professor of Engineering and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. During her time at MIT, she focused on thermal management, nanoengineered surfaces and materials, and water harvesting and purification. Dr. Wang was previously the Associate Director of the MIT Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, which is a DOE Energy Frontiers Research Center. She worked as a Technology Expert and Researcher for…


ARPA-E NIF Fusion Breakthrough Thumbnail
The Significance of the Achievement of Scientific Energy Gain at the National Ignition Facility

Today, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced the first-ever achievement of “scientific energy gain” in a controlled fusion experiment. Scientific energy gain, a term used by fusion researchers, is the condition where fusion energy exceeds the input energy crossing the containment-vessel boundary, which encapsulates the plasma science of the experiment. In the case of the NIF specifically, scientific energy gain and the term “ignition” are used interchangeably (more on that below). To understand the significance of scientific energy gain at…


ARPA-E 2022 Ocean Week
Reflecting on ARPA-E’s 2022 Ocean Week

Held in Washington DC from October 25-26, Ocean Week 2022 brought together teams from ARPA-E’s Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control (ATLANTIS) program, Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources (MARINER) program, Submarine Hydrokinetic And Riverine Kilo-megawatt Systems (SHARKS) program and other related projects to discuss advances in their technologies and collaborate to help solve their shared challenges. Ocean Week represents an important opportunity for teams to come together to participate in panel discussions,…


Investor Update Vol 10 Blog ARPA-E Bridger Photonics GML LIDAR Gas Mapping Technology
ARPA-E Investor Update Vol. 10: Bridger Photonics' Gas-Mapping LIDAR

ARPA-E awardee Bridger Photonics, a Montana-based company developing methane detection technology, raised $55 million in funding from Beaverhead Partners, a syndicate composed of Madison Valley Partners, Carica Sustainable Investments, and Next Frontier Capital. The investment – one of the largest investments from venture capital seen in the state of Montana – will allow Bridger Photonics to continue its rapid growth and bring in new employees for their recent office expansion.Bridger Photonics’ Gas Mapping LiDARTM (GML) methane detection technology is composed of LiDAR sensors and…