Arumugam Manthiram holds the George T. & Gladys H. Abell Endowed Chair of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). In December 2022, Professor Manthiram was named the first recipient of the recently created John B. Goodenough Award of The Electrochemical Society. Professor Manthiram’s major contributions to the field include pioneering fundamental and technological contributions to electrochemical energy conversion and storage, involving the development of new materials, advanced characterization, structure-property-performance relationships, and prototype devices. Key examples include the development of sustainable, low-cost, durable materials for batteries and fuel cells as well as delineation of the intricacies involved with ion and electron transport and magnetic interactions in transition-metal oxides..
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras awarded Prof. Manthiram’s PhD in Solid State Chemistry in 1980. He worked as a Lecturer at the Madurai Kamaraj University for four years, and for one year, as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Chemistry Nobel laureate John B. Goodenough. He joined the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoctoral researcher in 1986, became Assistant Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1991, and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2000. He served as the Director of the Texas Materials Institute and the Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program from 2011 through 2022.
Prof. Manthiram has provided research training to more than 300 students and postdoctoral researchers, including the graduation of 69 PhD students, 55 of whom are now faculty around the world; several hold leadership positions in industry. His research group includes about 35 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The author of more than 900 journal articles with over 98,000 citations and an h-index of 155, Prof. Manthiram has 20 issued patents. Four hundred of the 500 presentations he has made were invited talks around the world. He is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher every year since 2017, making him one of 6,200 scientists and engineers in all fields in the world.
The 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize Lecture was delivered by Prof. Manthiram on behalf of Nobel laureate John B. Goodenough. Prof. Manthiram is an elected Fellow of The Electrochemical Society (ECS), Royal Society of Chemistry, Materials Research Society, American Ceramic Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and World Academy of Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, and elected academician of the World Academy of Ceramics. Prof. Manthiram’s distinguished contributions to science have been honored with numerous awards including the 2021 ECS Battery Division Technology Award; 2020 ECS Henry B. Linford Award for Distinguished Teaching; 2020 International Battery Association Research Award; 2018 Da Vinci Award; 2016 Billy and Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award; 2015 Indian Institute of Technology Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award; 2014 ECS Battery Division Research Award; and 2012 University of Texas Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award.
A long-term ECS member, Prof. Manthiram served as Chair of the ECS Texas Section (2006-2007) and ECS Battery Division (2010-20120); and member of many committees including the Editorial Advisory Board, Symposium Planning Advisory Board, Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Subcommittee, and various award subcommittees. He founded the ECS UT Austin Student Chapter in 2006 and continues to serve as its Faculty Advisor.
