Speakers-Plenary Sessions

mESC-IS 2021

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The list here comprises  plenary speakers. There are additions to this list. Please check the complete program  as announced on our web site.  

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Professor Philipp Adelhelm,
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-University Berlin

“Material aspects of alternative energy stores: sodium-ion and solid-state batteries.“

Philipp Adelhelm is a materials scientist and graduated from the University of Stuttgart. He received his PhD degree in 2007 for his work on carbon materials for energy storage at the Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam (Antonietti group). From 2007-2009, he was postdoc at the Debye Institute of Nanomaterials Science in Utrecht, The Netherlands (de Jongh group) studying hydrogen storage materials. Between 2009-2015, he was group leader at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Janek group), with the main interest in exploring the cell chemistry of sodium based batteries. From 2015-2019 he was professor at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.Since 2019 he is professor at Humboldt-University Berlin (Physical chemistry of materials / electrochemistry) and heads a joint research group on “operando battery analysis” between Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-University Berlin.

Professor Hatem Akbulut
Sakarya University

Nano Designs for Lithium Battery Anodes

(Authored by Mahmud Tokur and Hatem Akbulut)
Hatem Akbulut has received his PhD in Materials and Metallurgy from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey in 1995. After a postdoc career at New Mexico Tech, in USA., he has started to study on the synthesizing of nanostructured materials for energy storage and nanocomposite depositions. Prof. Akbulut is a head of Lithium Ion Battery Development and Application Center (LIPGUM) at Sakarya University. He has participated in several international projects, including FP7, ERA-NET and bilateral projects. Prof. Dr. H. Akbulut attended at over 100 international conferences as a regular and invited speaker. He has published 6 book chapters and over 180 publications in various international journals, which have received more than 2000 citations. He has about 300 international conference papers.

Professor Sanjoy Banerjee,
CUNY Energy Institute

“Development of rechargeable zinc manganese dioxide batteries from concept through product to market“

Sanjoy Banerjee is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, City College of New York and Director of the City University of New York (CUNY) Energy Institute. Banerjee is also the Founder and Chairman of Urban Electric Power, spun out of the CUNY Energy Institute to develop ‘beyond lithium’ batteries. Banerjee was recruited from UC Santa Barbara, where he had been Department Chair and previously taught at Berkeley, McMaster University, and worked at Atomic Energy of Canada, as Director of the Applied Science Division. He has also served as Mitsubishi Professor at the University of Tokyo, the Burgers Professor at TU Delft, and at ETH Zurich. He has also served on several advisory boards: NASA Fluid Physics, the oil- industry Flow Assurance Consortium, and the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, congressionally mandated to advise on nuclear facilities.

Dr. Babu Chalamala
Sandia National Laboratories

“Materials technology gaps for low cost grid energy“

Dr. Babu Chalamala is Manager of the Energy Storage Technology and Systems Department at Sandia National Laboratory,. Prior to joining Sandia in August 2015, he was a Corporate Fellow at SunEdison (formerly MEMC Electronic Materials) for five years, where he led R&D and product development in grid scale energy storage. Before that, he founded two startup companies commercializing large format lithium batteries and digital x-ray sources. Earlier, as a research staff member at Motorola, Research Triangle Institute, and Texas Instruments, he made contribution to the development of electronic materials and device technologies. He received his B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Sri Venkateswara University and his PhD degree in Physics from the University of North Texas. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and Academy of Sciences St Louis, a Life Member of the Electrochemical Society, and a Member of the Materials Research Society. As chair of the IEEE Photonics Society Technical Committee on Displays, he was instrumental in launching the IEEE/OSA Journal of Display Technology. He has been an active member of the Materials Research Society for twenty years and served as General Chair of the 2006 MRS Fall Meeting. He was a guest editor of the MRS Bulletin, Proceedings of the IEEE, and the IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, and served on the editorial boards of the Proceedings of the IEEE and IEEE Access. He received the 2015 James Eads Award of the Academy of Sciences St Louis.

Dr. Fermin Cuevas
ICMPE/CNRS, Paris

“Enabling the success of the hydrogen-energy chain through international cooperation” 

(authored by Fermin Cuevas, François Aguey-Zinsou, Junxian Zhang and Michel Latroche)

Fermin Cuevas obtained his PhD (1996) in Physics at UAM University of Madrid. After postdoctoral studies at MPI-Stuttgart and CNRS-Thiais, in 2002 he became permanent researcher at CNRS. His main research activities are hydrogen storage in solids as well as electrode and electrolyte materials for Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries. Currently, he is leader of the Interaction of Hydrogen and Matter group at the East Paris Institute of Chemistry and Materials Science, co-head of the hydrogen storage axis at the French Research Network on Hydrogen Energy, and French coordinator of the International Research Network FACES, the French-Australian research network on Conversion and Energy Storage.

Professor Rezan Demir-Cakan
Gebze Technical University 

“Multivalent-ions Rechargable Batteries in Aqueous Medium “

Rezan Demir-Cakan completed her bachelor and master degree from Yildiz Technical University at the Chemical Engineering Department. She received her Ph.D. degree at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces , in Germany (2009), under the supervison of Markus Antonietti working on the synthesis, characterization and applications of hydrothermal carbon materials. Then she moved to France, the group of Jean-Marie-Tarascon, focusing on the rechargeable lithium batteries, more specifically on lithium-sulphur batteries between 2009-2012. Currently she has been working as an Associate Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department of Gebze Technical University. Her research interests include the synthesis of nanostructured energy materials and their application in the field of Li/Na batteries.

Professor Duncan Paul Fagg
Aveiro University  

“Nitride materials as possible electrodes for NH3 reversible fuel cells“

Dr. Duncan Fagg is currently employed as a Principal Researcher in the nanotechnology research division (NRD)   in the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He  obtained his B.SC in Chemstry and Materials science  Nottingham University 1992 and Ph.D. in Chemistry Aberdeen University 1997. He has over 20 years of research experience with previous placements in CICECO Aveiro, Portugal, ICV Autonomous University Madrid, Spain, Dept.Chemical Engineering, Patras Greece, School of Chemistry, St-Andrews University Scotland, and Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Roskilde Denmark.  He is the author of over 100 international scientific publications in areas covering   Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), Solid Oxide Electrolyser Cells (SOEC), Oxygen separation membranes, Hydrogen separation membranes, Hydrogen Storage.

Dr. Marie Guignard
CNRS Institute of Condensed Matter of Bordeaux

“New lithium-rich layered oxides as positive electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries”

Marie Guignard is a CNRS researcher and has expertise in solid state chemistry. She received her PhD in solid state chemistry in the University of Rennes 1, France and she joined the Institute of Condensed Matter of Bordeaux (ICMCB) in 2009. Her main interest is the structural studies of inorganic materials of different types (oxides vs sulfides, crystalline powders vs glasses). For the last ten years, she has been working on sodium layered oxides as positive electrode for sodium-ion batteries. More specifically, she has performed operando powder X-ray diffraction and pair distribution function (PDF) experiments to understand structural mechanisms occurring both at the long- and the short-range order in these materials upon cycling

Professor Olivier Joubert,
Université de Nantes & CNRS

“Materials development for proton ceramic cells”

Olivier JOUBERT (1965) is presently full professor in Chemistry of Materials at University of Nantes and is Chair of electrochemical storage and conversion of energy group (ST2E) of “Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel (CNRS-IMN)”. The major research interests of professor JOUBERT revolve around development of new materials for technological applications such as high and intermediate temperature ceramic Solid Oxide (SO) fuel or electrolyser cells (SOFC and SOEC). He is co-author of 120 publications, 25 invited talks and 5 patents. Olivier Joubert is chairing the French Research Network on Hydrogen Energy which assembles all French academic research groups in the field of electrolysis production and storage of hydrogen and also its conversion to electricity using fuel cell.

Dr. Sarp Kaya
Koç University

“Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation using BiVO₄ Photoanodes“

Sarp Kaya received his PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2007 after completing his studies on ultrathin metal oxide layers at Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Plank Society and Humboldt University. During his post-doctoral studies at Stanford University (2007-2010) and following research activities as a scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (2010-2014) and Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) (2011-2014) he heavily utilized synchrotron radiation for investigations on gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces. He has joined the Department of Chemistry, Koç University in 2013. He has also been co-director of Koç University Tüpraş Energy Center (KUTEM) since 2019.

Professor Semen N. Klyamin
Lomonosov Moscow State University

“Composition design, preparation techniques and hydrogen storage properties
of high entropy alloys“

Semen Klyamkin is a professor at the Chemistry Department at Lomonosov Moscow State University. He obtained PhD degree in inorganic chemistry (1987) and Doctor of Sciences in solid state chemistry (2014). In 1993-1994 he worked in Laboratoire de Chimie Métallurgique des Terres Rares, CNRS, France. He has published over 100 articles in international scientific journals. His research activity covers hydrogen storage materials, metal hydrides, gas adsorption in porous matrices (MOFs, carbons) with emphasis on high pressures, mechanochemistry, gas separation membranes.

Dr. Mykhaylo Lototskyy
University of the Western Cape

“Thermally-driven hydrogen compression utilising metal hydrides“

Dr. Mykhaylo Lototskyy graduated from the Moscow State University in 1977 and received his PhD degree in 1992 from the Lviv State University.  he joined  Mechanical Engineering Institute, Kharkov, where he worked on metal hydrides. Dr. Lototskyy’s work on metal hydrides in co-authorship with the group from Moscow State University  was awarded Lenin Comsomol Prize.   Following   postdoctoral position at the Institute for Energy Technology Norway,  Dr. Lototskyy joined the University of the Western Cape where he  is now  a Senior Researcher at HySA Systems Competence Centre hosted by UWC. Dr. Lototskyy’s  research interest focuses on   metal  hydrides and nanocomposites, thermodynamic and the kinetic performances of metal – hydrogen systems, gas-phase applications of metal hydrides including storage, compression and separation / purification of hydrogen.

Professor Dag Noréus,
Stockholm University

“Advanced aqueous alkaline batteries based on hydrogen“

Dag Noréus is a professor in the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University. He earned his PhD degree in reactor physics in 1982 at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, and completed his postdoc at Daimler-Benz, Metal Hydride Laboratory, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1983. Noréus became a researcher in 1984 and a professor in 2000 in the Department of Structural Chemistry, Stockholm University. His research interests include x-ray diffraction, elastic and inelastic neutron scattering, and electrochemistry focusing on the understanding of metal-hydrogen interaction in metal hydrides and electrodes. http://www.h2fc-fair.com/hm14/exhibitors/nilar.html

Dr. Alexander Opitz
TU Wien

“From model-type thin film electrodes to 3D porous cermets and beyond“

Alexander K. Opitz is the head of the research group Electrochemical Energy Conversion at TU Wien(Vienna, Austria). There he also received his PhD in 2011. He was a visiting scientist at MIT in 2017 and returned to a tenure track position at TU Wien, where he is now an Assistant Professor in the research division of Technical Electrochemistry. He is doing research in the fields of Solid State Ionics (electrode kinetics, current pathways, and electrochemically active zones of solid state electrochemical systems), heterogeneous catalysis (in-situ spectroscopic and analytic studies on the surface chemistry and catalytic activity of electrodes), and materials chemistry (synthesis and characterization of novel, alternative materials for solid oxide cells).

Professor Mihri Ozkan
University of California, Riverside

“Prospects for lithium-ion batteries and beyond”

Mihri Ozkan is a professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCR. Mihri is a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors and Frontier National Academy of Engineering, and an Alumna of Keck National Academy of Science. She is the Climate Action Champion and Change Maker Professor of the University of California. Mihri completed her graduate studies at Stanford University and at UC-San Diego. Mihri’s research is sparked with her commitment in climate control and environmental improvement. Her research group has been developing game-changer solutions for Li-ion battery technologies using sustainable materials and using green chemistry with low power processing. Transforming waste glass and plastic bottles, biomass (mushrooms, sugar) and natural sources such as sand and diatoms into high grade battery electrodes are among her group’s achievements. Mihri’s creative nature has resulted in 27 granted and 15 active patents in the area of advanced Li-ion battery technologies for smart grid, electric vehicle and portable electronics applications. Her invention portfolio puts her at the level of most innovative faculty of UCR. Hence, she has been selected as the most remarkable women of UCR by the UC Regents. Her creative research and innovative approaches for the advanced Li-ion battery technologies have brought her nearly 56 scientific national and international honors/awards including the Medal of Engineering Science, Humanitarian Star, Emerging Scholar, Great Inventor, Young Investigator, Achievement in Technical Ingenuity, the Top 100 Science awards, and she has been named as John J. Guarrera Engineering Educator, Top 50 Creator, Climate Global Winner, and Top 100 Author-by the Nature publisher. Her Google scholar citations is nearly 10841, h-Index is 54 and i10-Index is 138.

Professor Saim Ozkar
Middle East Technical University

“How to increase the catalytic efficacy of platinum-based nanocatalysts for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane

Saim Özkar has completed his undergraduate study in chemical engineering at the Technical University of Istanbul in 1972, and then worked for two years in industry. He received his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, Germany in 1976 before joining the Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University as an Assistant Professor in 1979, where he is now a Full Professor. He spent one year at the Max Planck Institute in Mülheim as Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation Scholar in 1986, 2 years at University of Toronto as visiting professor in 1988-1990, and 9 months at Colorado State University as Fulbright Fellow in 2000. His current research interests involve the transition metal nanoparticles; synthesis, characterisation, and catalytic applications in hydrogen generation, hydrogenation, oxidation, and coupling reactions.Saim Özkar was awarded the TÜBİTAK 1996 Science Prize and has been a member of Turkish Academy of Sciences since 1996.

Professor Bilge Yıldız,
MIT

“Energy-Efficient Hardware and Intelligent Materials for Brain-inspired Computing:
Artificial Synapses Based on Proton and Oxygen Motion”

Bilge Yildiz is a professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she leads the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces. She received her PhD at MIT in 2003 and her BSc from Hacettepe University in 1999. After working at Argonne National Laboratory as a research scientist, she returned to MIT as an assistant professor in 2007. Yildiz’s research focuses on laying the scientific groundwork to enable next generation electrochemical devices for energy conversion and information processing. The scientific insights derived from her research guide the design of novel materials and interfaces for efficient and durable solid oxide fuel cells, electrolytic water splitting, brain-inspired computing, and solid state batteries. Her laboratory has made significant contributions in advancing the molecular-level understanding of oxygen reduction, water splitting, ion diffusion, and charge transfer on mixed ionic-electronic conducting oxides. Her research has uncovered the effects of surface chemistry, elastic strain, dislocations, and strong electric fields on the reactivity, efficiency, and degradation in these applications. Her approach combines computational and experimental analyses of electronic structure, defect mobility and composition, using in situ scanning tunneling and X-ray spectroscopy together with first-principles calculations and novel atomistic simulations. Her teaching and research efforts have been recognized by the Argonne Pace Setter (2016), ANS Outstanding Teaching (2008), NSF CAREER (2011), IU-MRS Somiya (2012), the ECS Charles Tobias Young Investigator (2012), the ACerS Ross Coffin Purdy (2018), and the LG Chem Global Innovation Contest (2020) awards.