Helen Weierbach, a light-haired person wearing a beanie and a dark sweater smiles outdoors. Orange colored roof with teal and green accents. A color sculpture of helix DNA in front of a dusk-bathed building. A blue and grey building standing in a foggy forested landscape. Perlmutter super computer at Berkeley Lab. Exterior shot of a building at sunset. Illustration of a blue electric vehicle with light streaming from it against a black background. Person with short black hair wearing a white collared shirt and red patterned tie underneath a black suit jacket.

Scientists in Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area, Advanced Light Source, and Molecular Foundry have developed a polymer coating that could enable longer lasting, more powerful lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

 Researcher in protective great holding a biological plant sample. Two dark-haired people standing next to a high-performance super computer. Two researchers in a water-soaked grass field conducting an experiment. Two researchers stand facing a microscopic detector. A lab scientist wearing protective equipment holding out two glass viles. Three scientists in protective gear inspecting a table-top laser. Group of 50 to 80 individuals standing in front of a building.

The core of our scientific capabilities is our people, a diverse group of talented, creative scientists and professionals recognized throughout the world for their expertise in materials, chemistry, physics, biology, Earth and environmental sciences, mathematics, and computing.

 Details of various pieces of lab equipment at the at the Metabolomics lab.

Beyond our five DOE national user facilities, several of our facilities and centers support the experimental and data needs of researchers, agencies, and companies.

 Short-haired person wearing a purple shirt standing in front of a white wall.

The renowned synthetic biologist is harnessing biology to address challenges in renewable biomanufacturing, human health, and bioenergy.

 Blonde-haired person in glasses standing in front of a windowed wall.

Sinead Griffin has devoted much of her career to designing a new detector material that could help find “light” dark matter.

 Dark-haired person wearing a polo in front of a photo screen.

Adam Weber is accelerating development and deployment of clean hydrogen solutions to address urgent energy challenges.

To encourage innovation and to ensure that our research remains at the forefront of science, Berkeley Lab allocates a limited amount of its operating and capital equipment funds to our LDRD program. We carefully select projects to receive this Lab-discretionary funding to initiate new capabilities, reduce technical risk for major projects, integrate research across programs, and develop leaders of the future. Several of our most important, enduring research programs were launched with LDRD support.