Members of the leadership and staff at the Greater Houston Partnership along with representatives from Houston company members visited the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory on Tuesday, Aug. 21, hosted by Chris Heckle, Director of the Materials Manufacturing Innovation Center and welcomed by Claus Daniel, Associate Laboratory Director, Advanced Energy Systems. The full-day visit included tours of labs including the Materials Engineering Research Facility (MERF) and ReCell, Smart Energy Plaza, Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Aurora Reveal as well as presentations on Hydrogen, CO₂ Propulsion and Power along with Catalysis Discovery and the Circular Economy.  

“Houston is the epicenter of energy transition and Argonne has the history of a deep relationship with the University of Houston. Following our visit to Houston in April, we determined there were many ways to further our collaborations in the Gulf Coast region. This trip to Argonne by their delegation signaled strong interest in continuing to build opportunities for partnership and gave Argonne a wonderful opportunity to display our immense capabilities in the energy sector,” said Chris Heckle. 

Heckle remarked that when introducing delegations like the Greater Houston Partnership to Argonne’s many capabilities and talented science teams, the mutual takeaway is an increased sense of urgency that the time is now to strengthen these collaborations to meet the DOE driven sustainability and zero carbon emission goals across the country.