Charles W. Tobias Early-Career Award
Burcu Gurkan
Monday, October 26 | 1130h
Percheron Ballroom I, BMO Centre – Level 3
Electrolyte Concentration and Hydrogen Bonding Effects on Transport and Interfacial Properties
by Burcu Gurkan
Burcu Eksioglu Gurkan is the Kent Hale Smith II Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Case School of Engineering, at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). She is currently the Director of BEES2 (Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage Systems), an Energy Frontier Research Center of the U.S. Department of Energy. Her team develops deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids for solving problems in separations, electrocatalysis, energy storage, and conversion, with particular focus toward understanding solvation, transport, and interfacial properties.
Prof. Gurkan completed a BS at the Middle East Technical University and PhD at the University of Notre Dame. Before joining CWRU in 2016, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron. Prof. Gurkan is an Associate Editor for ACS Applied Engineering Materials. She was included in the 2019 Class of Influential Researchers by ACS Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. A Scialog Fellow in Negative Emissions Science, she received NASA Early Career Faculty, NSF CAREER, and PECASE Awards Prof. Gurkan has published 70 articles with an h-index of 39.
Edward Goodrich Acheson Award
Robert F. Savinell
Tuesday, October 27 | 1720h
Room 220, BMO Centre – Level 2
Electrochemical Science to Technology: Ideas, Understanding, Challenges, and It Takes a Village
by Robert F. Savinell
Robert Savinell is Distinguished University Professor and George S. Dively Professor of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He also holds a position as Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Limerick. Prof. Savinell’s research is directed at fundamental science and mechanistic issues of electrochemical processes, and device design, development, modeling, and optimization.
Prof. Savinell earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburg under the guidance of Prof. Chung-Chiun Liu. He joined the faculty of CWRU in 1986 after working as a research engineer at Diamond Shamrock Corporation and faculty member at the University of Akron. At CWRU, Prof. Savinell was Director of the Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences for 10 years and Dean of Engineering from 2000 to 2007. He has been a visiting professor at several universities including Yamanashi University, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Prof. Savinell was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (2013–2014). He is a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society (2000), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2003), and International Society of Electrochemistry (2013), and elected in the National Academy of Inventors (2024). Savinell was the founding PI and Director of the DOE Emerging Frontiers Research Center on Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage (BEES) (2018–2026). In 2022, Prof. Savinell received the ECS Vittorio De Nora Award, and in 2024, he was elected as Third Vice President of The Electrochemical Society.
Henry B. Linford Award for Distinguished Teaching
Robert G. Kelly
Monday, October 26 | 0800h
Room 219, BMO Center – Level 2
Teaching the Importance of Electrochemistry in Localized Corrosion for Scientific and Engineering Applications
by Robert G. Kelly
Robert Kelly is the Associate Chair for Operations, Thomas Goodwin Digges Professor of Materials Science, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Co-Director of the Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA). For the past 40 years, his research has focused on metals corrosion. In the past, he worked on the corrosion of metals and alloys in marine environments, non-aqueous and mixed solvents, as well as stress-corrosion cracking and localized corrosion. Now he studies conditions inside localized corrosion sites in various alloy systems, corrosion of additive manufacturing (AM) materials, and modeling of corrosion processes.
After completing his PhD at Johns Hopkins University in 1989, Prof. Kelly was a Fulbright Scholar and NSF/NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester Corrosion and Protection Centre. He joined the UVA faculty in 1990. Prof. Kelly is coauthor of over 150 papers and has presented 100+ invited talks. A Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) International Fellow, Prof. Kelly received the 2021 NACE W. R. Whitney Award, 2016 ECS Corrosion Division H. H. Uhlig Award, 1999 NACE H. H. Uhlig Award, and 1997 NACE A. B. Campbell Award. UVA honored Prof. Kelly with teaching awards including the 2024 Research Collaboration Award. He rendered technical assistance to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy concerning the Yucca Mountain Project, USAF Aging Aircraft Program, NASA Safety and Engineering Center, and 9/11 Pentagon Memorial design team.
Prof. Kelly joined ECS in 1984. His service to the Society includes Editor-in-Chief of ECS Interface since 2018, ECS Corrosion Division Chair (2004–2006), and multiple ECS Corrosion Division and Society committee memberships.