2026 Strategic Energy Seed Grant Program Awardees

Nineteen research projects that accelerate innovation in the global energy landscape have been selected to receive a 2026 Strategic Energy Seed Grant from the UT Energy Institute. The interdisciplinary research projects span power and infrastructure for data centers, global energy security, water resources, carbon management, catalysis, hydrogen, geothermal systems, critical minerals, and advanced energy technologies.  

“Global energy demand is high, pushed by electrification, data centers, and economic growth. At the same time, the need to ensure that the energy ecosystem at home and abroad is secure has never been more urgent,” said Brian Korgel, director of the UT Energy Institute and Rashid Engineering Regents Chair Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. “Tackling that means innovating across the entire energy system…from how we generate and store power, move energy assets from their sources to concentrated population centers to how we sustainably manage infrastructure and resources. The University of Texas at Austin is built for this, leveraging its sheer scale, deep expertise, and tight relationships with industry that turn lab breakthroughs into real-world solutions. “​​​​​​​​​​ 

“The UT Energy Institute is leading critical research across a wide range of transformative topics that underlie the energy ecosystem,” said Ashley Grosh, vice president of Breakthrough Energy. “For example, the Institute’s research and systems thinking are helping hyperscalers build the efficient infrastructure our country needs, tackling the upfront, hard, and complex problems related to multifaceted power generation and water resourcing.” 

Grosh added: “The Institute is fostering cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research across multiple departments, colleges, and schools at UT. These strategic seed projects are digging deep into the real challenges facing industries and communities today, and we are excited to keep supporting their path toward providing commercial solutions. This is a unique set of thought leaders coming together for the greater good.”  

Projects were selected from a competitive pool of 79 proposals submitted by multidisciplinary teams across campus. The selected projects will support research that can scale toward commercial solutions and attract future funding from federal, industry, and philanthropic partners. 

The following research projects were selected for funding in the 2026 Strategic Energy Seed Grant program:
 

From Backlash to Buy-in: Addressing Misperceptions and Crafting Communication Strategies to Build Stakeholder Support for Sustainable Data Centers

• Lucy Atkinson, School of Advertising and Public Relations, Moody College of Communication
• Deidra Miniard, LBJ School of Public Affairs

Project Description: Develops communication strategies to address public concerns and build stakeholder support for sustainable data center development.

Scaling and Corrosion-Free Distillation to Enable Saline Water Use for Data Centers

• Vaibhav Bahadur, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Andrew Fix, Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Develops scalable, corrosion-resistant distillation technologies to enable the use of saline water in data center cooling systems.

Next-Generation Enhanced Geothermal Systems for Powering Data Centers: Characterization, Optimization, and Delivery

• Shuvajit Bhattacharya, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences
• Mojdeh Delshad, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Jani Das, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences

Project Description: Advances enhanced geothermal systems to provide reliable, scalable, and low-carbon power for energy-intensive data centers.

Derisking Fault-Related Fluid Flow for Secure Carbon Storage

• Alex Bump, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences
• Carlos Uroza, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences

Project Description: Investigates fault behavior and fluid flow to reduce risks and improve the security of geologic carbon storage systems.

Securing the Battery Supply Chain: Mapping Graphite, Cathode, and Anode Vulnerabilities and Evaluating Government Equity Stakes in Mining

• Josh Busby, LBJ School of Public Affairs
• Nathan Jensen, Department of Government, College of Liberal Arts
• Michael Webber, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, LBJ School of Public Affairs

Project Description: Analyzes supply chain risks and policy strategies to strengthen critical battery material sourcing and security.

Reducing Water Stress in Texas: Membrane-Based Atmospheric Water Capture

• Andrew Fix, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Manish Kumar, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Designs and evaluates membrane-based systems to capture water from the atmosphere and reduce water scarcity in Texas.

A Game-Theoretic Framework to Ensure Resilient and Reliable Operation of a Rapidly Expanding Power Grid

• David Fridovich-Keil, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Shannon Strank, Center for Electromechanics, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Develops a game-theoretic modeling framework to improve reliability and resilience in rapidly expanding and increasingly complex power grid systems.

Scaling Carbon Management Systems

• Benjamin Leibowicz, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Arvind Ravikumar, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Hugh Daigle, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Creates scalable system-level models and strategies to accelerate deployment of carbon management technologies.

Improving Catalyst Durability for CO2 Conversion by Electrolyte Engineering

• Yuanyue Liu, Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Joaquin Resasco, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Enhances catalyst longevity and efficiency for CO2 conversion through advanced electrolyte design and engineering.

Environmental Fate of Amine Emissions from Carbon Capture: Atmospheric, Aqueous, and Photochemical Transformation Pathways

• Pawel Misztal, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Lea Hildebrandt Ruiz, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Lynn Katz, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Investigates how amine emissions from carbon capture systems transform and persist in environmental conditions.

The Water-Energy Nexus: Assess and Evaluate Sustainable Industrial Water Sourcing via Brackish Water Resources – the Dockum Aquifer, West Texas

• Jean-Philippe Nicot, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences
• Vaibhav Bahadur, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Lucy Tingwei Ko, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences

Project Description: Evaluates the use of brackish groundwater resources to support sustainable industrial water supply in energy production.

Digital Twin for Commercial Water Electrolyzers: An Automated Intelligent Platform for the Scale-Up of Green Hydrogen

• Laxminarayan L. Raja, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Mike Lewis, Center for Electromechanics, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Builds a digital twin platform to optimize performance, scaling, and deployment of commercial hydrogen electrolyzer systems.

Advanced Remote Monitoring of Offshore Energy Infrastructure Using Robotic Ultrasonic Inspection

• Salvatore Salamone, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Christopher Rausch, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Othman Oudghiri-Idrissi, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Develops robotic inspection systems using ultrasonic technologies to improve monitoring and maintenance of offshore energy infrastructure.

Subsynchronous Resonance Risk Assessment and Mitigation for Bring-Your-Own-Generator (BYOG) Island-Capable AI Data Center Microgrids

• Surya Santoso, Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Shannon Strank, Center for Electromechanics, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Develops methods to assess and mitigate subsynchronous resonance risks in data center microgrids using distributed generation.

Downhole Lithium Sensing and In Situ Extraction from Oilfield Brines

• Wen Song, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Zoya Heidari, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Designs technologies for real-time lithium detection and extraction directly from subsurface brine resources.

Plasma-Assisted Catalysis for Nonoxidative Methane Conversion into Hydrogen and Carbon Nanotubes

• Thomas Underwood, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Charles Buddie Mullins, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, Cockrell School of Engineering & Natural Sciences
• Michael Webber, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering | LBJ School of Public Affairs

Project Description: Explores plasma-assisted catalytic processes to convert methane into hydrogen and valuable carbon materials with reduced emissions.

A Geothermal Cooling Cycle for Data Centers

• Kenneth Wisian, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences
• Shuvajit Bhattacharya, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences

Project Description: Develops geothermal-based cooling systems to improve energy efficiency and sustainability of data center operations.

Multi-Time-Scale Power Smoothing for Next-Generation Datacenters: From Chip-Edge to Grid-Edge

• Yicheng Zhu, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
• Hao Zhu, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Project Description: Develops multi-scale power management strategies to stabilize energy demand from next-generation data centers.