Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Home... | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)
Source: https://science.osti.gov/bes
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:18
Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Home... | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)
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Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
What's New
Energy Department Announces $352 Million for Energy Frontier Research Centers to Accelerate Science Underpinning Energy Technologies
Department of Energy Announces Early Career Research Program for 2026
DOE Announces the EPSCoR Notice of Funding Opportunity
Summary
Program Update
Basic Energy Sciences (BES) supports fundamental research to understand, predict, and ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels in order to provide the foundations for new energy technologies and to support DOE missions in energy, environment, and national security. The BES program also plans, constructs, and operates major scientific user facilities to serve researchers from universities, national laboratories, and private institutions. The BES program funds work at more than 160 research institutions through the following three Divisions:
Materials Sciences and Engineering Division
Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division
Scientific User Facilities Division
The research disciplines that the BES program supports—condensed matter and materials physics, chemistry, geosciences, and aspects of physical biosciences—are those that discover new materials and design new chemical processes. These disciplines touch virtually every aspect of energy resources, production, conversion, transmission, storage, efficiency, and waste mitigation. BES research provides a knowledge base to help understand, predict, and ultimately control the natural world and serves as an agent of change in achieving the vision of a secure and sustainable energy future.
The energy systems of the future—whether they tap sunlight, store electricity, or make fuel from splitting water or reducing carbon dioxide—will revolve around materials and chemical changes that convert energy from one form to another. Such materials will need to be more functional than today’s energy materials. To control chemical reactions or to convert a solar photon to an electron requires coordination of multiple steps, each carried out by customized materials with designed nanoscale structures. Such advanced materials are not found in nature; they must be designed and fabricated to exacting standards using principles revealed by basic science.
One Day's Work in an Hour: A Versatile, Fast-scanning, X-ray Microscope
Accessing Dynamic Electrochemical Interfaces
Interactions Between X-Rays and Matter Provide Insights into How Electrons Behave in Molecules
Uncovering Hidden Atomic Patterns in Semiconductors
Combining Physics and Machine Learning to Analyze Particle Beams in Accelerators
Revealing Rock Stresses and Fractures in 3D
Contact Basic Energy Sciences
Address
BES, Germantown Building
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585-1290
Phone
Tel: Contact BES Executive Assistant
Lauren Smith: (301) 903-5316
Email
Send us a message
sc.bes@science.doe.gov
Top
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Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Home... | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)
Official websites use .gov
A
.gov
website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A
lock
(
) or
https://
means you’ve safely connected to
the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official,
secure websites.
Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
What's New
Energy Department Announces $352 Million for Energy Frontier Research Centers to Accelerate Science Underpinning Energy Technologies
Department of Energy Announces Early Career Research Program for 2026
DOE Announces the EPSCoR Notice of Funding Opportunity
Summary
Program Update
Basic Energy Sciences (BES) supports fundamental research to understand, predict, and ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels in order to provide the foundations for new energy technologies and to support DOE missions in energy, environment, and national security. The BES program also plans, constructs, and operates major scientific user facilities to serve researchers from universities, national laboratories, and private institutions. The BES program funds work at more than 160 research institutions through the following three Divisions:
Materials Sciences and Engineering Division
Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division
Scientific User Facilities Division
The research disciplines that the BES program supports—condensed matter and materials physics, chemistry, geosciences, and aspects of physical biosciences—are those that discover new materials and design new chemical processes. These disciplines touch virtually every aspect of energy resources, production, conversion, transmission, storage, efficiency, and waste mitigation. BES research provides a knowledge base to help understand, predict, and ultimately control the natural world and serves as an agent of change in achieving the vision of a secure and sustainable energy future.
The energy systems of the future—whether they tap sunlight, store electricity, or make fuel from splitting water or reducing carbon dioxide—will revolve around materials and chemical changes that convert energy from one form to another. Such materials will need to be more functional than today’s energy materials. To control chemical reactions or to convert a solar photon to an electron requires coordination of multiple steps, each carried out by customized materials with designed nanoscale structures. Such advanced materials are not found in nature; they must be designed and fabricated to exacting standards using principles revealed by basic science.
One Day's Work in an Hour: A Versatile, Fast-scanning, X-ray Microscope
Accessing Dynamic Electrochemical Interfaces
Interactions Between X-Rays and Matter Provide Insights into How Electrons Behave in Molecules
Uncovering Hidden Atomic Patterns in Semiconductors
Combining Physics and Machine Learning to Analyze Particle Beams in Accelerators
Revealing Rock Stresses and Fractures in 3D
Contact Basic Energy Sciences
Address
BES, Germantown Building
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585-1290
Phone
Tel: Contact BES Executive Assistant
Lauren Smith: (301) 903-5316
Send us a message
sc.bes@science.doe.gov
Top
Leaving Office of Science
The link you have requested will take you to a website outside the Office of Science.
Please click the following link to continue:
Thank you for visiting our site. We hope your visit was informative and enjoyable.
sub nav