Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy

The Northwestern University Sustainability & Energy Fellows Program launches Spring 2026, offering a rare three-year postdoctoral fellowship for researchers ready to lead bold, interdisciplinary work in energy, climate, and sustainability.

✨ Define your own research agenda
🤝 Work with world-class faculty at Northwestern University
🌍 Connect with industry, policy, and global partners driving real-world impact

If you’re an early-career researcher looking for the time, resources, and support to do truly ambitious work, this opportunity is for you!

📅 Apply by January 30, 2026
🌎 Open to international applicants
🔗 Link in bio to learn more & apply

We’re thrilled to welcome two outstanding research professionals to our R&D Pillar research teams! 🎉

🌟 Qining Wang has joined the Deploy R&D Pillar, working with Jennifer Dunn’s team to help translate research into real-world impact.

🌟 Xiaoliang Wang is joining the Capture Pillar with Omar Farha’s team, strengthening research in carbon capture and materials innovation.

Please join us in welcoming them both! 👏

Welcome

🌱🔬 How soils keep carbon locked away

Iron minerals play a quiet but powerful role in climate stability—and new research explains how. A study from Northwestern Engineering reveals that ferrihydrite, a common iron oxide mineral in soils, uses multiple chemical strategies to trap organic carbon, from patchy surface charges to chemical and hydrogen bonding.

Led by Ludmilla Aristilde, a member of the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, the findings help explain how soils can stabilize carbon for decades, offering critical insight for climate and carbon-cycle models.

Northwestern University has launched the Sustainability & Energy Fellows Program, a new three-year postdoctoral fellowship designed for researchers pushing the boundaries of energy science, climate innovation, and policy.

Fellows will define independent research paths, work with multiple faculty mentors, and collaborate across disciplines to advance real-world climate and energy solutions.

📅 Applications are now open through January 30, 2026
Learn more about the program and how to apply at the link in our bio

🌿 We’re Hiring!

The Trienens Institute is growing and we’re excited to announce two open positions: Program Coordinator Sr. and Associate Director of Marketing & Communications.

If you’re passionate about sustainability, energy, and supporting impactful work at Northwestern, we’d love to hear from you.

✨ Learn more & apply at the Trienens Institute website

How do we build net-zero cities? This session explores global urbanization trends, building-sector emissions, and the technologies, from electrification to low-carbon materials, that can drive sustainable urban development.

Led by Dr. Gavin Towler, the series highlights technical breakthroughs with global impact.

Join us as we rethink the future of the built environment.

Register at the link in our bio!

Northwestern researchers are shaping the future of climate and energy. 🌎⚡

This year, Crain’s Notable Leaders in Sustainability honored three Trienens Institute leaders for their impact and innovation: Omar Farha, Daniel Horton, and Ted Sargent.

From carbon capture breakthroughs to community-centered climate resilience, their work reflects our mission to build a healthier, more sustainable world.

Learn more at the link in our bio!

👏 Congratulations to all three!

With the support of our Industry Affiliates Program (IAP) members, the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy convened leaders from across the energy, technology, infrastructure and research sectors at our November 2025 IAP Roundtable: Scaling to Meet Data Center/AI Energy Demand Growth 2.0: Fast; Firm; Affordable; Clean.

Representatives from a broad range of industries, Argonne National Laboratory and other institutions joined Northwestern faculty and Trienens Institute leadership for discussions centered on accelerating affordable, reliable, resilient and sustainable solutions for rapidly growing data center and AI energy demands.

Through thematic roundtables, participants road mapped near-, medium-, and long-term priorities around managing multilayered innovation and regulation challenges at the grid/systems layer, data center/chip physical layer, and amongst the various local, state, and federal regulatory and markets schema.

We were also excited to share progress on a Trienens-led data centers research project spearheaded by Jennifer Dunn, David Morton, and Hari Osofsky, and to host valuable networking sessions supporting partnership development and student recruitment.

Panel participants included experts from:

• ComEd • Argonne National Laboratory • EdgeConneX • NVIDIA • Compass Datacenters • McKinsey & Company • Nutter Consulting Limited • Energize Strategies • Ecolab

Visit the link in our bio to learn more about the Industry Affiliates Program, or send a note to Lee Zachos, Executive Director of Industry Partnerships at [email protected].

Applications for the Northwestern Sustainability and Energy Fellowships are now open through January 2026. Learn more at the link in our bio!