Kumar Varoon Agrawal wins 2018 ERC Starting Grant

Kumar Varoon Agrawal (EPFL)

Kumar Varoon Agrawal (EPFL)

Professor Kumar Varoon Agrawal has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council.

The ERC Starting Grants are given each year to researchers of any nationality and in any field of research with 2-7 years of research experience after the completion of their PhD and who show a promising scientific track record, and offer an excellent research proposal. The application must be made from an EU or associated country, and each Starting Grant can be up to €1.5 million given over a period of five years.

This year, Kumar Varoon Agrawal (School of Basic Sciences, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering) has received a Starting Grant for his project: “UltimateMembranes: Energy-efficient membranes for carbon capture by crystal engineering of two-dimensional nanoporous materials”. The project will develop CO2-selective membranes that are only a few nanometer-thick, cutting down the energy penalty for CO­2 capture from the industrial streams.

"We are extremely excited about the development of these high-performance two-dimensional membranes, which can be a game-changer,” says Agrawal.