Michael Zuerch, associate professor of chemistry, has been awarded a Scialog Award by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. The organization, along with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and The Kavli Foundation have made awards to eight cross-disciplinary teams of early career researchers in the second year of Scialog: Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials, a three-year initiative catalyzing cutting-edge basic science to address how we acquire, use, and recycle the critical materials that sustain our high-tech society.
The 18 individual awards of $60,000 in direct costs will go to 17 scientists from colleges, universities, and research institutions in the United States.
“Critical minerals underpin modern society – from energy to agriculture, from electronics to AI – yet they can harm the environment, and many are vulnerable to supply chain instability,” said RCSA President Eric Isaacs. “Finding alternative materials, rethinking extraction, minimizing waste, and ensuring recyclability from the start of a material’s life cycle to its end are not simple problems. They demand cross-disciplinary collaboration.”
Professor Zuerch received a 2025 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award for a project in Sustainable Lithium Enrichment by Hydrogel-Mediated Solar Evaporation.
Read the full press release on the Research Corporation for Science Advancement website.