A Wisconsin Energy Institute investigator and two energy experts are among the University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty and students honored in 2024 by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for their innovations. 

Song Jin, a professor of chemistry and energy storage expert, and his graduate student Katelyn Michael were one of two teams to win the 2024 WARF Innovation Award for their invention of an electrochemical process to break down “forever chemicals.” 

The technology uses an inventive design to allow two typically incompatible processes for the destruction of per and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (commonly known as PFAS) to occur in a single cell. This improved method opens the door for electrochemical degradation of PFAS at scale. 

A team of electrical engineers including WEI investigator Giri Venkataramanan and energy expert Dominic Gross were finalists for their invention of a smaller, modular converter system that efficiently converts between alternating and direct current (DC) power. 

The modular converters could enable adoption of clean energy sources such as wind and solar, which increasingly use high-voltage DC systems for power conversion. 

WARF is a nonprofit organization that commercializes university discoveries to support ongoing research. Since 1925, the foundation has funded more than $4.5 billion in research grants to UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research and registered more than 4,200 patents.