Cyclotron Road

Last updated

Cyclotron Road is a fellowship program for technology innovators at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or Berkeley Lab. [1] Cyclotron Road supports entrepreneurial scientists as they advance their own technology projects that have the promise of significant global impact. The core support for the program comes from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, through the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program. [2] Most of the technologies developed by Cyclotron Road fellows are designed to accelerate the transition to a decarbonized economy.

Berkeley Lab manages the program in close partnership with Activate, a nonprofit organization established to scale the Cyclotron Road fellowship model to a greater number of innovators around the U.S. and the world. [3] In 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy expanded its Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP), under which the Cyclotron Road fellowship operates, to additional sites modeled after the Berkeley prototype. [4] Through its partnership with Activate, the program offers fellows a two-year funded fellowship that includes a stipend and access to national laboratory facilities to develop emerging clean-energy and advanced-technology ventures. [5] The Activate website describes this connection explicitly: "Activate’s entrepreneurial fellowship model originated at Cyclotron Road, a division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and founding Activate partner." [6] Activate Fellows have founded companies have raised more $1.3 billion in follow-on funding and created more than 1200 jobs. [7]

Notable alumni and their companies

The following table lists some notable alumni from the first four cohorts who are now in leadership positions, usually with the companies that they founded or co-founded. [8]

Name and CohortTechnology SectorPosition & companyRecent News
2015 Cohort
Etosha Cave & Kendra KuhlCarbon transformationCSO & CTO, Twelve [9] Chan Zuckerberg Initiative [10] [11]
Raymond WeitekampAdditive manufacturingCEO, polySpectra [12] Additive Manufacturing [13]
Deepak DugarBiomanufacturingCEO, Visolis [14] Forbes [15]
Marcus LehmannRenewable EnergyCEO, CalWave [16] Forbes [17]
2016 Cohort
Richard WangEnergy storageCEO, Cuberg [18] Reuters [19]
Peter FrischmannEnergy storageCEO, Sepion [20] C&EN [21]
Andrew HsiehEnergy storageCEO, Liminal [22] Automotive News [23]
Colin Bailie & Chris EberspacherPhotovoltaicsCEO & Director, Tandem PV [24] Bay Area Business Journal [25]
2017 Cohort
Sarah RichardsonBiotechnologyCEO, MicroByre [26] C&EN [27]
David BiermanEnergy storageCPO, Antora Energy [28] CNBC, [29] Canary Media [30]
Lance Brockway & Dave WaltherMetamaterialsCTO & President, Nelumbo [31] Cooling Post [32]
Vince RomaninAir conditioningCEO, Gradient [33] Wired [34]
2018 Cohort
Tim Latimer & Jack NorbeckGeothermalCEO & CTO, Fervo Energy [35] New York Times, [36] Washington Post [37]
Andrew Ponec & Justin BriggsEnergy storageCEO & COO, Antora Energy [28] CNBC, [29] Canary Media [30]
Christopher GravesEnergy storageCEO, Noon Energy [38] Canary Media [39]
Jill FussTechnology entrepreneurshipManaging Director, Activate BerkeleyCision [40]

References

  1. ↑ "Cyclotron Road". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  2. ↑ "Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program". U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  3. ↑ "Introducing Activate: Expanding Cyclotron Road's model". Activate.org. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "DOE Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs – Overview". U.S. Department of Energy – Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  5. ↑ "The Activate Fellowship". Activate. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Mission". Activate.org. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Impact". Activate. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Cohorts". Cyclotron Road. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  9. ↑ "Twelve: The carbon transformation company".
  10. ↑ "Putting Carbon Dioxide to Use: Meet Twelve Founder Etosha Cave". Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. February 10, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Twelve to Deploy World's First Industrial Scale Carbon Transformation Platform". Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. June 29, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Rugged Resins for Additive Manufacturing". polySpectra. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  13. ↑ "Polyspectra launches world's most rugged resin for desktop 3D printers". Additive Manufacturing. ASME. February 1, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Rugged photopolymer resins". Visolis. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  15. ↑ Cumbers, John (January 11, 2023). "Biomanufacturing startup Visolis has raised $8 million to make carbon negative materials". Forbes.
  16. ↑ "CalWave Power Technologies", Wikipedia, 2025-05-22, retrieved 2025-07-14
  17. ↑ "Marcus Lehmann". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-07-14.
  18. ↑ "Technology". Cuberg. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  19. ↑ "Swedish battery maker Northvolt buys U.S. startup Cuberg". Reuters. March 20, 2021.
  20. ↑ "About us". Sepion. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  21. ↑ "10 Start-ups to Watch". C&EN. American Chemical Society. November 4, 2022.
  22. ↑ "Solutions". Liminal. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  23. ↑ "EV battery inspection startup Liminal raises $17.5 million". Automotive News. February 26, 2023.
  24. ↑ "About". TandemPV. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  25. ↑ Herrera, Sonya (April 20, 2022). "A Silicon Valley startup is pioneering a way to make more efficient solar cells". Bay Area Business Journal.
  26. ↑ "Who we are". MicroByre. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  27. ↑ Zhang, Cici (March 8, 2020). "Trailblazers, Synthetic Biology". C&EN. American Chemical Society.
  28. 1 2 "Technology". Antora Energy. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  29. 1 2 Clifford, Catherine (February 16, 2022). "Bill Gates and Chris Sacca invest in energy storage start-up Antora to help heavy industry go green". CNBC.
  30. 1 2 Spector, Julian (April 13, 2022). "This startup's energy storage tech is 'essentially a giant toaster'". Canary Media.
  31. ↑ "Solutions". Nelumbo. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  32. ↑ "Surface Innovator Nelumbo Raises $14M". Cooling Post. April 15, 2020.
  33. ↑ "About us". Gradient. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  34. ↑ Weiss, Sabrina (December 21, 2021). "How to Stay Cool Without Warming the Planet". Wired.
  35. ↑ "About us". Fervo Energy. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  36. ↑ Krauss, Clifford (February 27, 2023). "As Oil Companies Stay Lean, Workers Move to Renewable Energy". New York Times.
  37. ↑ Osaka, Shannon (February 23, 2023). "How this company plans to use Earth's heat to cool the planet". Washington Post.
  38. ↑ "Storing renewable energy in a new type of battery". Noon Energy. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  39. ↑ Spector, Julian (January 18, 2023). "Noon Energy raises $28M for a whole new kind of long-duration storage". Canary Media.
  40. ↑ "Activate welcomes 39 new activate fellows whose innovations can decarbonize industries and build a cleaner, safer society". Cision. June 7, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.