UCSB Professor Wins 2026 Packard Fellowship
J. Tyler Mefford will use nearly $1 million in unrestricted funding to develop low-cost liquid hydrogen storage for renewable energy.
Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in Energy
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UC Santa Barbara assistant professor J. Tyler Mefford received the 2026 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. The five-year award provides nearly $1 million in unrestricted research funding.
Why it matters
Solar and wind power generation is intermittent, and storing electricity from these sources remains a challenge. Mefford's research aims to make seasonal renewable energy storage available during winter months.
The award provides nearly $1 million in unrestricted funding over five years, one of 20 fellowships given to early-career researchers in 2026. The research remains early-stage, and the cost and performance of the proposed storage approach have not yet been established.
The players
J. Tyler Mefford
An assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara whose research focuses on electrochemical energy storage and hydrogen-based renewable energy solutions.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The philanthropic foundation that established the Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering in 1988 to support early-career scientists pursuing ambitious ideas.
The details
Mefford's project uses renewable-generated energy to cycle hydrogen into liquid organic molecules electrochemically. His team plans to screen multiple materials simultaneously, and the funding will support additional students and research instruments.
Timeline
1988: The Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering was established.
2026: Mefford received the 2026 Packard Fellowship.
The fellowship funding is awarded over a five-year period.
Big Picture
The Packard Fellowship, established in 1988, has long backed early-career researchers pursuing ambitious work without the constraints of restricted grants. Mefford's hydrogen storage project extends that model into the energy sector, where intermittent solar and wind output keeps storage a central unsolved problem.
If the research succeeds, lower-cost storage could allow solar and wind power to supply electricity during periods without sun or wind. The work is early-stage, so no near-term change to household energy costs is established.
The takeaway
Storing renewable energy for later use is one of the central technical hurdles in the shift away from fossil fuels, and funding for early-stage approaches like this one is a step toward testing whether such storage can become affordable.
Further reading
Explore more Energy coverage from across the region.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Edhat Santa Barbara.
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