Pioneering Houston professor earns prestigious 2025 Franklin Institute Award

medal winner

Naomi Halas has pioneered insights into how light and matter interact at small scales and co-founded Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Rice University professor and nanoscience pioneer Naomi Halas has received the 2025 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry.

In addition to her role at Rice, Halas is co-founder and technical advisor of Syzygy Plasmonics, a Houston startup that relies on light instead of combustion as an energy source. This enables efficient, sustainable transformation of low-carbon ammonia into hydrogen when powered by renewable electricity.

Halas earned the Franklin Medal “for the creation and development of nanoshells — metal-coated nanoscale particles that can capture light energy — for use in many biomedical and chemical applications,” according to a release from Rice.

Halas’ work has pioneered insights into how light and matter interact at small scales, according to Rice. She joined Rice in 1989 to support the late Richard Smalley’s advancements in nanoscale science and technology.

“A lot of people were talking about nano like it was something completely new,” Halas said in the release. “But I realized it was really just chemistry viewed in a different way, and that really got me thinking about how I can combine the worlds of laser science and nanoscience.”

That shift in perspective led to the development of nanoparticles that spawned innovations in fields such as cancer therapy, water purification, and renewable energy.

“Naomi’s contributions to nanoscience have not only expanded the boundaries of our understanding but also transformed real-world applications in medicine, energy and beyond,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches added. “Her pioneering work on nanoshells exemplifies the spirit of innovation that defines Rice.”

One of Halas’ projects led to the founding of Syzygy, which develops light-driven, all-electric chemical reactors for inexpensive, sustainable production of hydrogen fuel. The company was named to was named to Fast Company's energy innovation list last year.

Halas is the first Rice faculty member to be elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering for research carried out at the university. She also has been elected to the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters. Halas holds 30 patents in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering.

The Franklin Medal is awarded by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Many scientists who have received the award have gone on to win Nobel prizes.

As a recipient of the Franklin honor, Halas will receive a $10,000 honorarium and a 14-karat gold medal during an award ceremony May 1 in Philadelphia.

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Decades of research have culminated in the creation of the Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research (WaTER) Institute at Rice University. Photo via Pexels

Rice University researchers pioneer climatetech breakthroughs in clean water nanotechnology

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Researchers at Rice University are making cleaner water through the use of nanotech.

Decades of research have culminated in the creation of the Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research (WaTER) Institute launched in January 2024 and its new Rice PFAS Alternatives and Remediation Center (R-PARC).

“Access to safe drinking water is a major limiting factor to human capacity, and providing access to clean water has the potential to save more lives than doctors,” Rice’s George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Pedro Alvarez says in a news release.

The WaTER Institute has made advancements in clean water technology research and applications established during a 10-year period of Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), which was funded by the National Science Foundation. R-PARC will use the institutional investments, which include an array of PFAS-dedicated advanced analytical equipment.

Alvarez currently serves as director of NEWT and the WaTER Institute. He’s joined by researchers that include Michael Wong, Rice’s Tina and Sunit Patel Professor in Molecular Nanotechnology, chair and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and leader of the WaTER Institute’s public health research thrust, and James Tour, Rice’s T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering.

“We are the leaders in water technologies using nano,” adds Wong. “Things that we’ve discovered within the NEWT Center, we’ve already started to realize will be great for real-world applications.”

The NEWT center plans to equip over 200 students to address water safety issues, and assist/launch startups.

“Across the world, we’re seeing more serious contamination by emerging chemical and biological pollutants, and climate change is exacerbating freshwater scarcity with more frequent droughts and uncertainty about water resources,” Alvarez said in a news release. “The Rice WaTER Institute is growing research and alliances in the water domain that were built by our NEWT Center.”

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

NanoTech is targeting new overseas markets for its energy efficiency products. Photo via Getty Images

Promising Houston startup expands energy efficiency product to Middle East, Singapore

big move

NanoTech Materials has announced a big expansion for its business.

The Houston company, which created a roof coating using nanotechnology that optimizes energy efficiency, has partnered with Terminal Subsea Solutions Marine Service SP to bring its products to the Gulf Cooperation Council and Singapore. TSSM will become a partner of Houston’s NanoTech Materials products, which will include the Cool Roof Coat, Vehicular Coat, and Insulative Coat for the GCC countries and Singapore.

NanoTech Materials technology that ranges from roof coatings on mid- to low-rise buildings to shipping container insulation to coating trucks and transportation vehicles will be utilized by TSSM in the partnership. NanoTech’s efforts are focused on heat mitigation that can reduce energy costs, enhance worker safety, and minimize business risks in the process.

“Businesses and communities within the GCC and Singapore feel the impact of extreme temperatures and longer Summers more acutely than any other region in the world,” Mike Francis, CEO of NanoTech Materials, says in a news release. “We have an opportunity to make a real impact here through reduced energy load, cooler and safer working conditions, and a reduced carbon emissions output from the hottest, driest place on earth. We are incredibly excited to be partnering with our colleagues at TSSM to bring this powerful technology to the region.”

One of the areas that will benefit from this collaboration is the Middle East. The GCC region is characterized by a desert climate, which has average annual temperature reaching 107.6°F and summer peaks climbing as high as 130°F. The effects of these extreme conditions can be dangerous for workers especially with strict labor laws mandating midday work bans under black flag conditions, which can result in productivity losses as well.

NanoTech’s proprietary technology, the Insulative Ceramic Particle (ICP), will be used to address challenges in energy efficiency and heat control in the logistics and built environment sector. The platform can be integrated into many applications, and the impact can range from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protecting communities that are wildfire-prone. The core of the technology has a lower conductivity than aerogels. It also has a “near-perfect emissivity score” according to the company. The NanoTech ICP is integrated with base matrix carriers; building materials, coatings, and substrates, which gives the materials heat conservation, rejection, or containment properties.

By combining the ICP into an acrylic roof coating, NanoTech has created the Cool Roof Coat, which reflects sunlight and increases the material's heat resistance. This can lower indoor temperatures by 25 to 45°F in single-story buildings and reduce the carbon emissions of mid to low-rise buildings. This can potentially equal energy savings from 20 percent up to 50 percent, which would surpass the average 15 percent savings of traditional reflective only coatings.

“This technology will have a huge impact on supporting the region's aggressive climate initiatives, such as Saudi Arabia’s Green Initiative, aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 278 million tons annually by 2030,” Jameel Ahmed, managing director at TSSM, says in the release. “The regional efforts to enhance climate action and economic opportunities through substantial investments in green technologies and projects are evident, and we are proud to be offering a product that can make a difference.”

NanoTech says its coating maintains its effectiveness over time and doesn’t suffer UV degradation issues which are helpful, especially in extreme weather conditions workers and businesses face in regions like the Middle East.

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Houston-based ENGIE to add new wind and solar projects to Texas grid

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Houston-based ENGIE North America Inc. has expanded its partnership with Los Angeles-based Ares Infrastructure Opportunities to add 730 megawatts of renewable energy projects to the ERCOT grid.

The new projects will include one wind and two solar projects in Texas.

“The continued growth of our relationship with Ares reflects the strength of ENGIE’s portfolio of assets and our track record of delivering, operating and financing growth in the U.S. despite challenging circumstances,” Dave Carroll, CEO and Chief Renewables Officer of ENGIE North America, said in a news release. “The addition of another 730 MW of generation to our existing relationship reflects the commitment both ENGIE and Ares have to meeting growing demand for power in the U.S. and our willingness to invest in meeting those needs.”

ENGIE has more than 11 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in operation or under construction in the U.S. and Canada, and 52.7 gigawatts worldwide. The company is targeting 95 gigawatts by 2030.

ENGIE launched three new community solar farms in Illinois since December, including the 2.5-megawatt Harmony community solar farm in Lena and the Knox 2A and Knox 2B projects in Galesburg.

The company's 600-megawatt Swenson Ranch Solar project near Abilene, Texas, is expected to go online in 2027 and will provide power for Meta, the parent company of social media platform Facebook. Late last year, ENGIE also signed a nine-year renewable energy supply agreement with AstraZeneca to support the pharmaceutical company’s manufacturing operations from its 114-megawatt Tyson Nick Solar Project in Lamar County, Texas.

Houston geothermal company raises $97M Series B

fresh funding

Houston-based geothermal energy startup Sage Geosystems has closed its Series B fundraising round and plans to use the money to launch its first commercial next-generation geothermal power generation facility.

Ormat Technologies and Carbon Direct Capital co-led the $97 million round, according to a press release from Sage. Existing investors Exa, Nabors, alfa8, Arch Meredith, Abilene Partners, Cubit Capital and Ignis H2 Energy also participated, as well as new investors SiteGround Capital and The UC Berkeley Foundation’s Climate Solutions Fund.

The new geothermal power generation facility will be located at one of Ormat Technologies' existing power plants. The Nevada-based company has geothermal power projects in the U.S. and numerous other countries around the world. The facility will use Sage’s proprietary pressure geothermal technology, which extracts geothermal heat energy from hot dry rock, an abundant geothermal resource.

“Pressure geothermal is designed to be commercial, scalable and deployable almost anywhere,” Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, said in the news release. “This Series B allows us to prove that at commercial scale, reflecting strong conviction from partners who understand both the urgency of energy demand and the criticality of firm power.”

Sage reports that partnering with the Ormat facility will allow it to market and scale up its pressure geothermal technology at a faster rate.

“This investment builds on the strong foundation we’ve established through our commercial agreement and reinforces Ormat’s commitment to accelerating geothermal development,” Doron Blachar, CEO of Ormat Technologies, added in the release. “Sage’s technical expertise and innovative approach are well aligned with Ormat’s strategy to move faster from concept to commercialization. We’re pleased to take this natural next step in a partnership we believe strongly in.”

In 2024, Sage agreed to deliver up to 150 megawatts of new geothermal baseload power to Meta, the parent company of Facebook. At the time, the companies reported that the project's first phase would aim to be operating in 2027.

The company also raised a $17 million Series A, led by Chesapeake Energy Corp., in 2024.

Houston expert discusses the clean energy founder's paradox

Guest Column

Everyone tells you to move fast and break things. In clean energy, moving fast without structural integrity means breaking the only planet we’ve got. This is the founder's paradox: you are building a company in an industry where the stakes are existential, the timelines are glacial, and the capital requires patience.

The myth of the lone genius in a garage doesn’t really apply here. Clean energy startups aren’t just fighting competitors. They are fighting physics, policy, and decades of existing infrastructure. This isn’t an app. You’re building something physical that has to work in the real world. It has to be cheaper, more reliable, and clearly better than fossil fuels. Being “green” alone isn’t enough. Scale is what matters.

Your biggest risks aren’t competitors. They’re interconnection delays, permitting timelines, supply chain fragility, and whether your first customer is willing to underwrite something that hasn’t been done before.

That reality creates a brutal filter. Successful founders in this space need deep technical knowledge and the ability to execute. You need to understand engineering, navigate regulation, and think in terms of markets and risk. You’re not just selling a product. You’re selling a future where your solution becomes the obvious choice. That means connecting short-term financial returns with long-term system change.

The capital is there, but it’s smarter and more demanding. Investors today have PhDs in electrochemistry and grid dynamics. They’ve been burned by promises of miracle materials that never left the lab. They don't fund visions; they fund pathways to impact that can scale and make financial sense. Your roadmap must show not just a brilliant invention, but a clear, believable plan to drive costs down over time.

Capital in this sector isn’t impressed by ambition alone. It wants evidence that risk is being retired in the right order — even if that means slower growth early.

Here’s the upside. The difficulty of clean energy is also its strength. If you succeed, your advantage isn’t just in software or branding. It’s in hardware, supply chains, approvals, and years of hard work that others can’t easily copy. Your real competitors aren’t other startups. They’re inertia and the existing system. Winning here isn’t zero-sum. When one solution scales, it helps the entire market grow.

So, to the founder in the lab, or running field tests at a remote site: your pace will feel slow. The validation cycles are long. But you are building in the physical world. When you succeed, you don’t have an exit. You have a foundation. You don't just have customers; you have converts. And the product you ship doesn't just generate revenue; it creates a legacy.

If your timelines feel uncomfortable compared to software, that’s because you’re operating inside a system designed to resist change. And let’s not forget you are building actual physical products that interact with a complex world. Times are tough. Don’t give up. We need you.

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Nada Ahmed is the founding partner at Houston-based Energy Tech Nexus.

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