(Press-News.org) The Hertz Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering the nation’s most promising innovators in science and technology, and Breakthrough Energy Discovery, a Breakthrough Energy platform focused on pre-venture, early-stage clean technology, have announced a new partnership to advance transformative climate and energy solutions.
This collaboration brings together two organizations with a shared commitment to advancing scientific innovation and supporting exceptional talent. By connecting Breakthrough Energy’s innovation platform with the Hertz Foundation’s renowned community of scientific leaders, the partnership will create new opportunities for Fellows across both networks to engage, exchange ideas, and collaborate.
Through this partnership, Hertz Fellows will gain access to Breakthrough Energy’s global network of climate and energy experts, entrepreneurship curriculum, mentorship opportunities, and grant programs. In turn, Breakthrough Energy will engage more deeply with the Hertz Foundation’s exceptional pipeline of technical talent working at the frontiers of science and engineering. Together, the partners will offer joint programming — including workshops, targeted networking, and shared resources — to engage Hertz Fellows at key stages in their careers and contribute to climate and energy solutions.
This collaboration also reflects a broader model for how mission-aligned organizations can deepen support for top-tier scientific talent and accelerate impact far beyond the scope of any single program.
“At its core, this partnership is about the power of ecosystems,” said Ashley Grosh, Vice President of Breakthrough Energy Discovery. “When institutions like Breakthrough Energy and the Hertz Foundation align, we create something greater than the sum of our parts. By opening up our networks, sharing resources, and connecting extraordinary talent, we believe we can accelerate innovation at a scale that no one organization could achieve alone.”
“This partnership highlights the transformative power of strategic collaboration in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Wendy Connors, Hertz Foundation President. “By connecting the Hertz Foundation’s unparalleled network of scientific talent with Breakthrough Energy’s global platform of climate and energy experts, we are unlocking breakthrough potential and accelerating innovative solutions.”
Several Hertz Fellows have worked at Breakthrough Energy during their careers, including Cooper Rinzler and Rajeev Ram, who serve as partners at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Thomas Dean, a research scientist on the Breakthrough Energy Contrails team.
The first joint effort kicks off this summer with a session on climate collaboration and innovation at the 2025 Hertz Summer Workshop, the signature event for the Hertz community and one-of-a-kind gathering of some of the nation’s top scientists, entrepreneurs and leaders. This is one of many opportunities the two organizations are building together to connect, collaborate, and advance climate solutions.
About Breakthrough Energy
Breakthrough Energy is a global platform focused on accelerating clean energy innovation and building the industries of the future. Founded by Bill Gates in 2015, we work across every major source of emissions to drive down costs, eliminate green premiums, and make clean technologies affordable and accessible worldwide. We support investment-ready breakthroughs at every stage of the innovation pipeline—through our discovery platform for pre-venture innovation; a suite of venture capital funds backing 120+ climate tech companies; and flexible capital for commercial deployment. We’re finding solutions, funding them, and bringing people together to scale them.
About the Hertz Foundation
Founded in 1957, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation accelerates solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, from enhancing national security to improving human health. Through the Hertz Fellowship, the Foundation identifies the nation’s most promising young innovators and disruptors in science and technology, empowering them to become future leaders who keep our country safe and secure. Today, a community of more than 1,300 Hertz Fellows are a powerful, solution-oriented network of our nation’s top scientific minds, working to address complex problems and contributing to the economic vitality of our country. Learn more at hertzfoundation.org.
END
Hertz Foundation and Breakthrough Energy partner to advance climate and energy solutions
2025-05-30
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New study reveals how tiny insects detect force
2025-05-30
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A newly published study in the Journal of Neurophysiology reveals how blow flies (Calliphora vicina)—despite their minimal body weight—reliably detect forces through specialized sensory organs in their legs. The research offers new insights into insect biomechanics and presents promising applications for the design of next-generation walking robots.
Researchers at Marshall University and West Virginia University examined the behavior of campaniform sensilla—strain-detecting ...
New 3D genome mapping technology sheds light on how plants regulate photosynthesis
2025-05-30
Chinese researchers have developed a groundbreaking technology that sheds light on how the three-dimensional (3D) organization of plant genomes influences gene expression—especially in photosynthesis.
The research, which was led by Prof. XIAO Jun at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with BGI Research, was published in Science Advances on May 30.
The innovative method not only provides a more precise tool for understanding the intricate 3D interactions between genes, but also highlights the critical role of long-range chromatin interactions ...
Dinosaur eggshell study confirms biogenic origin of secondary eggshell units
2025-05-30
The calcitic layers of the eggshells of archosaurs (including crocodilians and birds) and turtles are composed of distinctive crystalline structures known as eggshell units. Those growing from the shell membrane are called primary eggshell units (PEUs), while those forming within the calcitic layer are called secondary eggshell units (SEUs). Although rare in modern bird eggs, SEUs are common in dinosaur eggs. Due to the lack of in-depth research on this structure, however, scientists are uncertain whether they are biogenic or abiogenic in origin.
To tackle this issue, an international ...
Transforming immunotherapy design
2025-05-30
The University of Pittsburgh’s Natasa Miskov-Zivanov, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award of $581,503 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her project titled “Artificial Intelligence-Driven Framework for Efficient and Explainable Immunotherapy Design.” Through her novel approach and the development of an automated system that leverages AI and knowledge graphs to design more effective lymphocytes, she hopes to transform the ...
New book with a global view of men’s experiences with partner violence
2025-05-30
More than two decades ago, Denise Hines began investigating a topic most researchers wouldn’t touch: men as victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). She and collaborator Emily Douglas were the first in the U.S. to earn federal funding for this line of research, publishing studies that challenged entrenched gender assumptions and provoked debate in the field.
Their new book, The Routledge Handbook of Men’s Victimization in Intimate Relationships, offers the most thorough international synthesis ...
New research recovers evidence for lost mountains from Antarctica’s past
2025-05-30
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-OSHKOSH – A new study led by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh geologist Timothy Paulsen and University of Colorado Boulder thermochronologist Jeff Benowitz advances the understanding of the geologic history of Transantarctic Mountains bedrock, with implications for understanding the evolution of landscapes lying beneath the ice sheets covering Antarctica.
The team of researchers analyzed the chemistry of mineral grains commonly found in igneous rocks, like granite, from the Transantarctic Mountains. The research team includes other scientists from the University of Arizona, St. Louis University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Alaska ...
Scientists discover new evidence of intermediate-mass black holes
2025-05-30
In the world of black holes, there are generally three size categories: stellar-mass black holes (about five to 50 times the mass of the sun), supermassive black holes (millions to billions of times the mass of the sun), and intermediate-mass black holes with masses somewhere in between.
While we know that intermediate-mass black holes should exist, little is known about their origins or characteristics—they are considered the rare “missing links” in black hole evolution.
However, four new studies have ...
Predicting underwater landslides before they strike
2025-05-30
Below ocean wind farms, oil rigs and other offshore installations are mammoth networks of underwater structures, including pipelines, anchors, risers and cables, that are essential to harness the energy source. But much like terrestrial structures, these subsea constructions are also vulnerable to natural events, like submarine landslides, that can hamper the productivity of installations below the sea.
Researchers at Texas A&M may now be able to accurately predict the occurrence of marine landslides using underwater site characterization data.
“One ...
What will it take to reduce primary care doctor burnout?
2025-05-30
America’s primary care doctors are burning out, cutting back their hours, and leaving their practices early, driven in part by the demands of handling the flood of digital messages from their patients.
But a trio of new University of Michigan studies offer hope for easing this crisis, and improving both the care that patients get and the work lives of those who provide it. The studies could help primary care clinics nationwide take steps to keep the bedrock of American health care from crumbling further.
All three papers, published in the Journal of ...
Small currents, big impact: Satellite breakthrough reveals hidden ocean forces
2025-05-30
What if some of the smallest ocean currents turned out to be some of the most powerful forces shaping our planet’s climate?
This question is at the center of new research co-led by Texas A&M University Department of Oceanography Associate Professor Jinbo Wang, whose work is featured on the cover of the April 17 issue of Nature. It’s a big moment for Wang and his colleagues and the global science community — marking a milestone in a billion-dollar, international water mission two decades in the making, and reflecting Texas A&M University’s long-term strategy ...