Takachar founder and Tata Fellow Kevin Kung won the Cyclotron Road Fellowship for 2018-2020 

Tata Fellow Kevin Kung recently won the prestigious Cyclotron Road Fellowship for Takachar, a biomass waste management project that turns agricultural residue into carbon-negative fertilizer. The fellowship program will allow Kung access to facilities, equipment, and expertise at the Lawrence Berkley Lab as well as UC Berkeley. He will also receive initial research funding to work on his project.

“It’s the first biomass focused project we’ve supported here at Cyclotron Road, so it’s an exciting new area for us to support hard technology development,” said Mary Catherine O’Connor who manages Communications for the Program.

The Fellowship, funded in part by the State of California Energy Commission and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aims to support hard technology innovation by providing select innovators tools, knowledge, and networks to turn an idea into a commercially viable product that can have a transformative impact on communities.

“What was helpful was during the preparation for the final round, in mid-January, they asked us to send them our presentation. And they had someone on the Cyclotron Road team get in touch with us via telephone and give us valuable feedback on how we could improve our final presentations,” Kung said.

The program currently targets three areas – advanced manufacturing, clean power, and electronics.

“I was quite surprised to learn about the Cyclotron Road outcome, but also was very excited, as it is one of the best ways for me to move forward with my project. The program is a great way to build a project into a good company that, by the end of two years, has very well defined customers, partners to work with, and also financing strategy going forward,” Kevin added.