COMING SUMMER 2024!
Since its inception in 1902, ECS has led the world in advancing the electrochemical and solid state sciences by publishing research, hosting technical meetings, fostering education, and collaborating with other organizations. ECS members include internationally recognized luminaries in battery research, from the Nobel Prize-winning inventors of the lithium ion battery to the highest-cited authors in “beyond lithium ion” research. With over a century of experience in delivering superior programming for researchers and academics, as well as representing a global community of scientists, engineers, and educators, ECS is uniquely positioned to meet the career demands of the lithium ion battery industry and prepare future leaders.
ECS launches a transformative journey to accelerate scientific discoveries
Harnessing decades of expertise, ECS is proud to have joined with esteemed researchers and industry leaders in bringing to life the career development programs designed not just to upskill a workforce but to empower a new generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators, and address the battery industry’s critical workforce training needs.
These three dynamic career development programs merge theoretical knowledge with practical insights and utilize a rich blend of virtual delivery and detailed case studies. Each course is a self-directed, online learning experience, featuring 20 to 25 hours of instruction, with various levels of assessment given throughout the course.
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Course topics
Materials Science in Lithium Ion Battery Components: Electrolytes, Anodes, and Cathodes
Delve into the structure and properties of common battery materials including anodes such as graphite, silicon, and lithium metal; cathodes including LiFePO4, NMC, LNMO, and LMR-NMC; and electrolytes; along with the interfacial reactions of the electrolyte with the electrode interfaces.
Learning outcomes
- Develop a general understanding of the properties and challenges associated with different commercial electrode materials and electrolytes.
- Develop a general understanding of the materials characterization techniques for electrode materials and electrolytes.
- Develop a general understanding of troubleshooting methods that can be used to determine the sources of problems in commercial lithium ion batteries.
Electrochemical Techniques and Diagnostics for Batteries
Understand basic electrochemical testing techniques and diagnostic methods for commercial lithium ion batteries.
Learning outcomes
- Develop a general understanding of charge/discharge cycling, capacity vs voltage, dQ/dV, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT).
- Be skilled in using these techniques to test and characterize lithium batteries.
Fabrication of Lithium Ion Batteries and Pack Design
Explore general methods for preparing laminate electrodes, electrode stacking/winding, and pack construction.
Learning outcomes
- Develop a general understanding of commercial laminate electrode preparation.
- Develop a general understanding of the challenges associated with electrode stacking and winding processes.
- Understand the advantages of various separator materials.
- Develop a general understanding of lithium ion battery pack design testing and the battery management system.
Course instructors
Wes Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, and a Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, at Drexel University. Prof. Chang completed his BS (2014) and MS (2016) in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, and his PhD (2021) in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Princeton University. After completing his doctoral thesis, he continued working on lithium metal batteries as a postdoc at Columbia University funded by General Motors (2021-2022). He spent the following year (2022-2023) as the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, where he worked on lithium-mediated electrochemical ammonia synthesis. He received The Electrochemical Society F.M. Becket Fellowship. Outside academia, he previously worked in the battery industry and management consulting for energy and utilities, and regularly serves as a technical advisor to energy-focused startup companies and investment firms.
Dr. Peter Dreher is renowned for his pivotal contributions to Li-ion battery technology. His innovative approach in 2016 to reducing battery costs by 50 percent led to the development of the 2170 cell at the Tesla/Panasonic Gigafactory in Nevada. Beyond his work with Tesla, Dr. Dreher’s diverse career spans academia, industry, and research. He has held positions as a professor and research scientist at top universities including Purdue, and worked with General Motors, in geothermal industry, and in medical products R&D.
Dr. Dreher’s commitment to societal benefit is evident from his work on safety innovations such as bumper airbags for semi-trucks (funded by the National Institutes of Health) and sustainable sanitation solutions (supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). He holds a PhD in Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an MBA in Finance from Northeastern University. Additionally, he completed an unprecedented triple major in Mechanical, Chemical, and Nuclear Engineering, alongside a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from a distinguished trade school in Boston.
Matthieu Dubarry (PhD, Electrochemistry and Solid State Science, Université de Nantes) has over 20 years of experience in renewable energy, with an emphasis in the area of lithium ion batteries. Following his PhD on the synthesis and characterization of materials for lithium batteries, Dr. Dubarry joined the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as a postdoctoral fellow in 2005 to work on the analysis of the usage of a fleet of electric vehicles. He was appointed to a faculty position in 2010 with a focus on battery testing, modeling, and simulation. While at HNEI, Dr. Dubarry pioneered the use of new techniques for the non-destructive analysis of the degradation of Li-ion cells and developed numerous software tools facilitating the prognosis of Li-ion battery degradation both at the single cell and the battery pack level. Current projects include evaluating grid scale Li-ion battery energy storage systems; evaluating the impact of vehicle-to-grid strategies on electric vehicle battery pack degradation; and testing emerging battery technologies for grid-connected and transportation applications.
Jeff Lowe is a Virtual Propulsion Engineer in Battery Cell Electrochemistry at General Motors (GM). His work focuses on developing modeling techniques to assess battery chemistries for next-generation electric vehicles (EVs). He earned his BS in Chemical Engineering at Michigan Technological University in 2012 and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2019. He received the Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship in the College of Engineering at Purdue University. At Purdue (2019-2021), he developed property-performance trends for novel electrocatalysts, such as those employed in fuel cells. Additionally, he volunteers for STEM and community outreach projects and has managed undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Lin Ma is an assistant professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He began his scientific career in the energy storage field with the development of conversion cathode materials under the supervision of Prof. Yong Yang at Xiamen University. He obtained his BSc in Chemistry there in 2012. With the support of a Killam Fellowship, Dr. Ma completed a PhD in 2019 at Dalhousie University, working with Prof. Jeff Dahn on high voltage Li-ion batteries. From 2019-2022, he held the Dr. Brad E. Forch Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory/University of Maryland, training under the supervision of Dr. Kang Xu, Prof. Chunsheng Wang, and Dr. Oleg Borodin. Dr. Ma’s research interests focus on the use of electrochemistry and materials science in clean energy technologies (mainly energy storage systems) to address energy and environmental challenges. The author and co-author of more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, one book, and six patents, he was included in the 2023 Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigators. Dr. Ma received the 2022 Young Investigator Award (Batteries, MDPI), and ECS Battery Division’s 2021 Postdoctoral Associate Research Award and 2017 Student Research Award. He serves as an active reviewer in the energy field for 80+ publications including Nature, Nature Energy, Journal of Power Sources, ACS Energy Letters, and others.
