Innovative batteries & fuel cells

CNRS Research Director

Laurence Croguennec graduated (PhD) in 1996 from Nantes University at the Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel (France) and spent one year as a Post-Doc at the Bonn University (Germany). She became CNRS researcher at ICMCB in 1997, led the research group “Energy: Materials and Batteries” between 2004 and 2021 and she is Deputy Director of ICMCB since this January 2022. She is actively involved in the French Network on the Electrochemical Energy Storage (RS2E) and in the ALISTORE European Research Institute devoted to battery research. She has been working for more than 25 years now on the crystal chemistry of electrode materials developed for Metal-ion batteries, and more recently all-solid state batteries, and on the characterization of mechanisms involved upon their cycling, especially for layered and spinel oxides and polyanionic-type positive electrode materials. She is the co-author of ~ 145 publications in this field.

Professor Fellow Australian Academy of Sciences an Alfred Deakin Professorial Fellow at Deakin University and an Ikerbasque Visiting Professorial Fellow."

Professor Maria Forsyth “FAA” (Fellow Australian Academy of Sciences) an Alfred Deakin Professorial Fellow at Deakin University and an Ikerbasque Visiting Professorial Fellow at University of the Basque Country. Professor Forsyth has worked at the forefront of energy materials research since her Fulbright Research Fellowship in 1990 and has consistently made breakthrough discoveries, including in polymer electrolytes, ionic liquids and organic plastic crystals. Her research has focused on understanding the phenomenon of charge transport in these materials and at metal/electrolyte interfaces present in all electrochemical applications. This extensive body of work provides the basis for understanding the behaviour of these materials and thus, provides clarity on how to overcome their performance limitations and design and develop improved applications.

Professor Forsyth leads collaborative projects in lithium and sodium battery technologies funded through recent Australian Research Council grants and with various industries.  She is a co-author of over 700 journal and conference publications attracted more than 29000 citations. She has delivered more than 25 invited and plenary talks in the past 5 years. Professor Forsyth has served on several editorial boards and is currently senior editor for Journal of Physical Chemistry letters. She is the recipient of the Galileo Galilee award for her contributions to the Polymer Electrolyte and energy storage field, has received the Australian Corrosion Association Corrosion Medal and was awarded  Victorian Prize for Science and Innovation (VESKI) in 2017 and  RACI electrochemical division Stokes Medal for contributions to electrochemistry in 2022.

Electrochemical Energy Storage Theme Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division

Chris Johnson is currently an Argonne Distinguished Fellow and senior chemist at Argonne National Laboratory, specializing in the research & development of battery materials and battery systems with 30 years of experience.  He is known worldwide for his development of state-of-art lithium-ion battery cathode materials, and sodium-ion batteries. Recently he has been interested in accelerating electrochemical reactions with light. He holds a BS. Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University. He has published over 134 publications, and 34 issued US patents in the battery field.  He has received the research award from the International Battery Association in 2006, and a R&D-100 award for the commercialization of lithium battery materials in 2009.  He is Past-Chair of the Electrochemical Society Battery Division, and immediate past President of the International Battery Association (IBA).  He is the 2018 recipient of the University of Chicago Argonne Distinguished Scientist Award, and is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society

Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry

Shinichi Komaba received his Ph.D. degree from Waseda University, Japan, in 1998 and then was a research associate at Iwate University, Japan, from 1998 to 2005. From 2003 to 2004, he also worked at the Institut de Chimie de la Matier̀ e Condenseé de Bordeaux, France, as a postdoctoral researcher. He joined the Tokyo University of Science as a faculty member in 2005. He was awarded the 2014 Resonate Award from Caltech, USA, and JSPS Prize in 2014. He also received a Prize for Science and Technology, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science ,and Technology, Japan, in 2019. His current research focuses on material science and electrochemistry in rechargeable Li-, Na-, and K-ion batteries, capacitors, sensors, and biofuel cells.

Senior scientist and the team leader of the Battery Development and Reliability group

Education:

09/2000-07/2005 Ph.D. in Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
09/1996-07/2000 B.S. in Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Professional experience:
12/2018-present Team leader of the Battery Development and Reliability group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA - Lead a diverse team of material scientists, electrical engineers, and chemical engineers to develop new battery technologies, perform economic analyses, and validate the battery reliability for energy storage applications. - Mentor and coach ~12 staff members and postdocs; Facilitate effective communication between staff members, program managers and sector leaders; Conduct staff performance review and hiring.
12/2009-present Scientist/Senior scientist, PNNL, Richland, WA - Lead/manage advanced Na-ion battery and aqueous Zn battery projects under Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Electricity’s Energy Storage program (2013-present). - Co-led industrial and DOE Vehicle Technology Office projects on the development of Si-based anodes for Li-ion batteries (2016-2020). - Spearheaded the development of porous structure Si materials and novel electrolytes for Li-ion battery anodes (2009-2016).
08/2005-11/2009 Postdoctoral research fellow, Stanford University, Stanford, CA - Pioneered the development of graphene nanoribbon semiconductors and carbon nanotube/graphene Langmuir-Blodgett films. - Developed carbon nanotubes of well-controlled diameter/chirality for nanoelectronics and bio applications.

Full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry

Teófilo Rojo has been Full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) since 1992. He is the co-author of over 600 articles, 14 book chapters and 2 books. His research is focused on Energy Storage Systems (batteries and supercapacitors)

From 2010 to 2020 he has been the Scientific Director of the CIC energiGUNE. He has been the chairman of the Solid-State Chemistry Group and Materials within the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) for ten years. He was awarded with the National Prize in Inorganic Chemistry by the RSEQ in 2013. He was appointed as a Correspondent Academic Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Exacts, Physical and Natural Sciences in 2015. He was a Member of the Executive Committee of the Division of Solid-State Chemistry and Materials (DSSMC) from EuCheMS (2014-2016) and in 2016 he was appointed as a Member of the Chemistry and Energy of EuCheMS (European Chemical Science).

Responsible for active management and strategic consulting in the development and implementation of research projects and funding initiatives, also in the European and international context.

Felix Schrader studied chemistry and received his PhD in 2017 from the RWTH Aachen University. After a short postdoctoral period at the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry and Electrochemistry at RWTH Aachen University he joined the Project Management Juelich at Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH in 2018 as a scientific administrator. There he supports research and innovation on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the business area „Materials Technologies for Energy and Mobility, Battery“. He is responsible for active management and strategic consulting in the development and implementation of research projects and funding initiatives, also in the European and international context.