Today, Columbia announced the $21.5 million gift, which will advance research and teaching in chemistry at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia College, and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Columbia scientists have developed a way to harness more power from singlet fission to increase the efficiency of solar cells, providing a tool to help push forward the development of next-generation devices.
The new process converts infrared energy into visible light, allowing innocuous radiation to penetrate living tissue and other materials without the damage caused by high-intensity light exposure.
A team of Columbia researchers show that a widely used chemical tracer, combined with a cutting-edge microscope, can track metabolic changes within the living cells of animals.
The design is the first practical floating solar hydrogen-generating device to perform water electrolysis without pumps or membranes and could lead to low-cost, sustainable hydrogen production.