Kevin Sivula wins Air Liquide challenge
Kevin Sivula ©EPFL
Kevin Sivula is the laureate of one of Air Liquide’s “Essential Molecules Challenge".
Air Liquide is a French multinational company that supplies various industries with gases, and provides vital services to medical and chemical industries and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, it is now one of the biggest industrial gas suppliers in the world and operates in more than 80 countries. The company specializes in producing essential small molecules, which include O2, N2, H2, and CO2.
This year Air Liquide ran its first “Essential Molecules Challenge”, designed to reinforce the company’s “focus on science for accelerating innovation”. Teams from academia, private R&D companies, start-ups, and private or public institutes, were invited to submit proposals for scientific breakthroughs on topics related to societal and environmental challenges.
The jury for the first edition of the Air Liquide Essential Molecules Challenge selected three projects from a total of 130 scientific proposals submitted by academic teams, R&D departments and start-ups from 25 countries. Participants competed in three topics:
- Sunny H2 in a Bottle: Producing H2 by using water and solar energy to reduce CO2 emissions
- Pocketable Small Molecules: Materials acting like sponges to safely capture, store and release our Essential Small Molecules
- CO2, give back your O2: Producing O2 along with CO and carbon in a sustainable way
Kevin Sivula, head of EPFL’s Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials, was chosen by the jury as the winner of the “Sunny H2 in a Bottle” topic.
Sivula, originally from the United States, studied at the University of Minnesota and the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained academic training in Chemical Engineering. In 2011 he accepted an appointment as tenure-track assistant professor at EPFL in the Institute of Chemical Science and Engineering. Currently he leads the LIMNO lab, which specializes in solution-processed semiconductor thin-film devices. He also teaches courses on Transport Phenomena, Chemical Product design, and Solar Energy Conversion Systems.
As the winner of the “Essential Molecules Challenge”, Sivula will receive a scientific award in recognition of the originality his proposed research project, and the opportunity to receive funding for maturing his scientific proposals and transforming his ideas into innovative market technologies.