LEAP - About Us

Mission: Driving Energy-Demanding Reactions Using Solar Energy

The mission of the Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP) is to develop the fundamental scientific understanding needed to use efficient, light-driven, multi-electron redox processes to power energy-demanding chemistry. Understanding energy-demanding redox reactions is important because they are the basis of processes used on a global scale to provide materials, fuels, chemicals, and food. Making these processes highly efficient will have a major positive impact on both the US and global economy. LEAP is a strategic research center within the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN).

Objectives: Molecular and Materials Discovery to Meet US Department of Energy's Grand Challenges

1. How do we control material processes at the level of electrons?
2. How do we design and perfect atom- and energy-efficient synthesis of revolutionary new forms of matter with tailored properties?
3. How do remarkable properties of matter emerge from complex correlations of the atomic or electronic constituents and how can we control these properties?
4. How can we master energy and information on the nanoscale to create new technologies with capabilities rivaling those of living things?
5. How do we characterize and control matter away—especially very far away—from equilibrium?