Sweet Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Sugar Power
INNOVATOR: Jonathan Woodward
The Discover Awards program does manage to enrich one inventor. For the second year in a row, the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, a presidentially appointed federal agency, has given a $100,000 grant to a Discover Awards nominee to encourage the continuation of research on a specific innovation that will help all Americans. This year’s grant goes to Jonathan Woodward (his photo is on page 8), a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who is employed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation.
One day in 1994, Woodward was listening to a colleague describe how he was trying to extract hydrogen from water using only sunlight to power the reaction. Woodward, a biochemist, could appreciate why an economical, environmentally sound method for making hydrogen would be attractive. After all, when hydrogen burns, only water and carbon dioxide are left behind. Hydrogen ...
