RIVERSIDE, Calif. (http://www. ucr. edu ) -- Ming Lee Tang, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, has received a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue her work on developing hybrid organic-inorganic materials that have applications in healthcare and the solar industry.

Tang is one of 84 scientists from across the nation selected for the grant through the DOE's Office of Science Early Career Research Program. She will receive approximately $150,000 each year over the next five years for her project titled "Splitting photons: Singlet fission in nanocrystal-molecule hybrid structures."

Tang, who has been at UC Riverside since 2012, is working to design, make and characterize hybrid organic-inorganic nanocrystal-based materials that have applications in biomedical imaging and the solar industry.

"I am excited about exploring the possibility of using quantum dots and organics to extract as much energy as possible from sunlight and circumvent the losses in existing solar cells. I also want to thank my research group for all their hard work leading up to this award," Tang said.

Now in its ninth year, the competitive award program is designed to bolster the nation's scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years. To be eligible, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory, who received a Ph.D. within the past 10 years.

The 84 awardees--including 30 from DOE's national laboratories and 54 from U.S. universities--were selected from a large pool of applicants based on peer review by outside scientific experts. Projects announced today are selections for negotiation of financial award. The final details for each award are subject to grant and contract negotiations between DOE and the awardees.

A list of the awardees, their institutions, and titles of research projects is available on the Early Career Research Program webpage.

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