Batteries—they’re all around us, from everyday items like cellphones and laptops to life-saving medical devices and environmentally-friendly electric vehicles. So, who are the people behind the batteries that continue to impact and improve our daily lives? According to Research Interfaces, the following are the 10 lithium-ion battery researchers to watch.

In our series, The ECS Community Adapts and Advances, Venkat Viswanathan shares stories of unexpected opportunities and inspiration. To help early career researchers make progress while labs are shuttered and new lab work isn’t possible, he is creating opportunities to showcase their latest work to academic and industry. Online Battery Symposium Inspires Action Venkat Viswanathan is a Faculty Fellow at the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He…
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New, low-cost batteries designed to last for a million miles of use in electric vehicles? Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk says the public can expect just that from the Model 3 sedan, expected to debut in China late this year or early next.  According to Reuters, the new “million mile” battery—which relies on low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries, among others—was jointly developed with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL). Reuter’s sources say CATL plan on supplying Tesla with an improved…
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Topic Close-up #11 Symposium A05: Advances, Challenges, and Development of Solid State Battery Electrochemistry and Materials Symposium focus: The goal of this symposium is to address fundamental understanding on the role of material and interface electrochemistry and technological challenges of solid state battery development.

“Good enough” are just words in his last name, but not ones John B. Goodenough seems to live by. The 97-year-old, widely referred to as the “father of the lithium-ion batteries,” continues to awe the battery field. According to IEEE Spectrum, the 2019 Nobel Prize winner recently co-developed a rapid-charging, non-flammable, glass battery. The high capacity battery charges in “minutes rather than hours,” according to Maria Helena Braga, professor of engineering at the University of Porto in Portugal, who worked…
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