Cyclotron Road Explained

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] 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."^[4] Activate Fellows have founded companies have raised more $1.3 billion in follow-on funding and created more than 1200 jobs.^[5]

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.^[6]

Name and Cohort	Technology Sector	Position & company	Recent News
2015 Cohort
Etosha Cave & Kendra Kuhl	Carbon transformation	CSO & CTO, Twelve^[7]	Chan Zuckerberg Initiative^[8] ^[9]
Raymond Weitekamp	Additive manufacturing	CEO, polySpectra^[10]	Additive Manufacturing^[11]
Deepak Dugar	Biomanufacturing	CEO, Visolis^[12]	Forbes^[13]
2016 Cohort
Richard Wang	Energy storage	CEO, Cuberg^[14]	Reuters^[15]
Peter Frischmann	Energy storage	CEO, Sepion^[16]	C&EN<ref>News: 10 Start-ups to Watch . American Chemical Society . C&EN . November 4, 2022.
Andrew Hsieh	Energy storage	CEO, Liminal^[17]	Automotive News^[18]
Colin Bailie & Chris Eberspacher	Photovoltaics	CEO & Director, Tandem PV^[19]	Bay Area Business Journal^[20]
2017 Cohort
Sarah Richardson	Biotechnology	CEO, MicroByre^[21]	C&EN<ref>News: Trailblazers, Synthetic Biology . C&EN . American Chemical Society. Zhang . Cici. March 8, 2020.
David Bierman	Energy storage	CPO, Antora Energy^[22]	CNBC,^[23] Canary Media^[24]
Lance Brockway & Dave Walther	Metamaterials	CTO & President, Nelumbo^[25]	Cooling Post^[26]
Vince Romanin	Air conditioning	CEO, Gradient^[27]	Wired^[28]
2018 Cohort
Tim Latimer & Jack Norbeck	Geothermal	CEO & CTO, Fervo Energy^[29]	New York Times,^[30] Washington Post^[31]
Andrew Ponec & Justin Briggs	Energy storage	CEO & COO, Antora Energy	CNBC, Canary Media
Christopher Graves	Energy storage	CEO, Noon Energy^[32]	Canary Media^[33]
Jill Fuss	Technology entrepreneurship	Managing Director, Activate Berkeley	Cision^[34]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Cyclotron Road . Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory . 8 March 2023.
2. Web site: Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program . U.S. Department of Energy . 8 March 2023.
3. Web site: Introducing Activate: Expanding Cyclotron Road's model. Activate.org . 9 March 2016.
4. Web site: Mission . Activate.org . March 10, 2023.
5. Web site: Impact . Activate . March 13, 2023.
6. Web site: Cohorts . Cyclotron Road . Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory . 13 March 2023.
7. Web site: Twelve: The carbon transformation company .
8. Web site: Putting Carbon Dioxide to Use: Meet Twelve Founder Etosha Cave. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. February 10, 2022.
9. News: Twelve to Deploy World's First Industrial Scale Carbon Transformation Platform . Chan Zuckerberg Initiative . June 29, 2022.
10. Web site: Rugged Resins for Additive Manufacturing. polySpectra. 11 March 2023.
11. News: Polyspectra launches world's most rugged resin for desktop 3D printers . Additive Manufacturing . ASME . February 1, 2023.
12. Web site: Rugged photopolymer resins. Visolis. 11 March 2023.
13. News: Biomanufacturing startup Visolis has raised $8 million to make carbon negative materials . Forbes . Cumbers . John . January 11, 2023.
14. Web site: Technology. Cuberg. 11 March 2023.
15. News: Swedish battery maker Northvolt buys U.S. startup Cuberg . Reuters . March 20, 2021.
16. Web site: About us. Sepion. 12 March 2023.
17. Web site: Solutions. Liminal. 12 March 2023.
18. News: EV battery inspection startup Liminal raises $17.5 million . Automotive News . February 26, 2023.
19. Web site: About. TandemPV. 12 March 2023.
20. News: A Silicon Valley startup is pioneering a way to make more efficient solar cells . Bay Area Business Journal . Herrera . Sonya. April 20, 2022.
21. Web site: Who we are . MicroByre. 12 March 2023.
22. Web site: Technology . Antora Energy. 12 March 2023.
23. News: Bill Gates and Chris Sacca invest in energy storage start-up Antora to help heavy industry go green . CNBC. Clifford . Catherine . February 16, 2022.
24. News: This startup's energy storage tech is 'essentially a giant toaster'. Spector . Julian . Canary Media . April 13, 2022 .
25. Web site: Solutions . Nelumbo. 12 March 2023.
26. News: Surface Innovator Nelumbo Raises $14M . Cooling Post. April 15, 2020.
27. Web site: About us . Gradient. 12 March 2023.
28. News: How to Stay Cool Without Warming the Planet . Wired. Weiss . Sabrina. December 21, 2021.
29. Web site: About us . Fervo Energy. 12 March 2023.
30. News: As Oil Companies Stay Lean, Workers Move to Renewable Energy . New York Times . Krauss . Clifford. February 27, 2023.
31. News: How this company plans to use Earth’s heat to cool the planet . Osaka . Shannon . Washington Post . February 23, 2023.
32. Web site: Storing renewable energy in a new type of battery . Noon Energy. 12 March 2023.
33. News: Noon Energy raises $28M for a whole new kind of long-duration storage. Spector . Julian . Canary Media . January 18, 2023 .
34. News: Activate welcomes 39 new activate fellows whose innovations can decarbonize industries and build a cleaner, safer society. Cision . June 7, 2022.