Speakers

Prof. Dr. Robert Dominko
National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia

Title: "Reliable characterization of artificial layers on the metallic anodes"

Prof. Dr. Robert Dominko is a research professor at the National Institute of Chemistry in Slovenia, and he is a university professor of material science at the University of Ljubljana. His research interests are in the field of materials science and electrochemical systems for energy storage, with main activities in the field of modern battery systems. He was the coordinator of two large-scale EU projects focused on the development of Li-S batteries. His current research interests are focused on different types of multivalent batteries and the implementation of smart functionalities in battery cells. He is strongly connected with Battery 2030+ initiative and with Batteries Europe, where he is one of the co-leaders of the task force preparing a strategy on the education level. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed papers and 15 patents. He is a deputy director of the European virtual research laboratory for batteries Alistore ERI and he is a member of the Slovenian Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Dr. Kelsey Hatzell
Princeton University, USA

Title: "Detection and interrogation of chemo-mechanics in solid state batteries across length scales"

Dr. Hatzell is an assistant professor at Princeton university in the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment and department of Mechanical and aerospace engineering. Hatzell’s group primarily work on energy storage and is particularly interested at using non-equilibrium x-ray techniques to probe batteries during operando experimentation.

Dr. Hatzell earned her Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering at Drexel University, her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, and her B.S./B.A. in Engineering/Economics from Swarthmore College. Hatzell’s research group works on understanding phenomena at solid|liquid and solid|solid interfaces and works broadly i9n energy storage and conversion. Hatzell is the recipient of several awards including the ORAU Powe Junior Faculty Award (2017), NSF CAREER Award (2019), ECS Toyota Young Investigator Award (2019), finalist for the BASF/Volkswagen Science in Electrochemistry Award (2019), the Ralph “Buck” Robinson award from MRS (2019), Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry (2020), and POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers (2021).

Prof. Dr. Matthew T. McDowell
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Title: "In Situ Investigation of Lithium Interface Evolution in Solid-State Batteries"

Matthew McDowell is an associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He has appointments in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2013 and was a postdoc at Caltech from 2013 until 2015. McDowell has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR Young Investigator Award, the NASA Early Career Faculty Award, and the Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award. For more information, see https://mtmcdowell.gatech.edu.

Prof. Dr. Y. Shirley Meng
University of Chicago, USA

Title: "Advanced Characterization for Lithium Metal Batteries and Solid State Batteries"

Dr. Y. Shirley Meng received her Ph.D. in Advanced Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005. Dr. Meng is now Professor of Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at University of Chicago, and she serves as the Chief Scientist for Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Sciences (ACCESS). Dr. Meng is the principal investigator of the research group - Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC). Dr. Meng received several prestigious awards, including Faraday’s Medal (2020), International Battery Association Battery Research Award (2019), American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award (2018), IUMRS-Singapore Young Scientist Research Award (2017), C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016) and NSF CAREER Award (2011). Dr. Meng is elected Fellow of the electrochemical society (FECS) and elected Fellow of the materials research society (MRS). She is the author and co-author of more than 245 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters and five issued patents. Dr. Meng is on the board of directors for ECS and serves as the chairperson for Battery Division. Dr. Meng is the Editor-in-Chief for MRS flagship energy journal - MRS Energy & Sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Linda Nazar
University of Waterloo, Canada

Title: "Stabilizing Lithium Anodes with In-Situ Protective Layers for All Solid State Batteries"

Prof. Linda Nazar received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, her Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Toronto, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Exxon Research Labs in Annandale, N.J. She joined the faculty at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada where she is a Chemistry professor, Senior Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials and Distinguished Research Professor. Nazar is known for her research on electrochemical energy storage with topics that span Li-ion batteries, “beyond Li-ion”, and solid state electrolytes/batteries. She has co-authored approx. 260 publications garnering over 58,000 citations. She is on the Web of Science’s Highly Cited Researcher Lists from 2014-2021, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London & Canada). Nazar is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the recipient of several international awards including the MRS Medal, the Battery Research Award from the Electrochemical Society, the August-Wilhem von Hofman Lectureship (Germany Chemical Society), the International Battery Association award and the International Automotive Lithium Battery award. She has been a member of the Joint Centre for Energy Storage Research (USA) since 2013. She has spent sabbaticals at UCLA; the Jean Rouxel Institute of Materials and the CNRS in France; she was a Moore Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology and is currently a Visiting Liebig Professor at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany.

Dr. Venkat Srinivasan
Argonne National Lab, USA

Title: "Morphology evolution in Li metal anodes: Insights from math models"

Venkat Srinivasan is a Senior Scientist at Argonne National Lab. He is the Director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) and Deputy Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR, the battery “Hub”).

As Director of ACCESS, he helps coordinate the energy storage activities at Argonne linking the Lab’s capabilities and facilities to solve the numerous cross-cutting challenges that impede commercialization of energy storage materials, devices, and systems. As the Deputy Director of JCESR, he helps define and execute the scientific vision, mission and outcomes of the multi-institution partnership focused on beyond Li-ion batteries.

Prior to joining Argonne, Dr. Srinivasan was a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab where he led multiple scientific programs focused on energy storage and the electric grid. While at Berkeley he created a public-private partnership called Calcharge linking energy storage companies to three National Labs in the SF Bay Area and fostered a local ecosystem around storage.

Prof. Dr. Eric D. Wachsman
University of Maryland, USA

Title: "Enabling High Rate Lithium Metal Anodes by Tailored Structures and Interfaces"

Dr. Eric D Wachsman, Director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, is the William L. Crentz Centennial Chair in Energy Research and a Distinguished University Professor with appointments in both the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University, and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Wachsman is President of The Electrochemical Society (ECS) and Editor-in-Chief of Ionics. He is a Fellow of both ECS and the American Ceramic Society; elected member of the World Academy of Ceramics; the recipient of the 2017 Carl Wagner Award from ECS; the 2014 Sir William Grove Award from the International Association for Hydrogen Energy; the 2014 Pfeil Award from The Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining; the Outstanding Invention of 2013 award from the University of Maryland Office of Technology Licensing; the 2012 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition Award; and the 2012 HTM Outstanding Achievement Award from ECS.

His research is focused on solid ion-conducting materials and electrocatalysts, and includes the development of solid-state batteries, solid oxide fuel cells, ion-transport membrane reactors, and solid-state gas sensors, using advanced ion conducting materials. He has more than 270 publications and 35 patents/patent applications on ionic and electronic transport in materials, and their catalytic properties, and device performance, and to date three companies have been founded based on these technologies.

Prof. Dr. Qiang Zhang
Tsinghua University, China

Title: "Emerging Energy Chemistry at Li metal and Electrolyte Interfaces"

Prof. Qiang Zhang is a full professor at Tsinghua University. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering (2009) from Tsinghua University, China, and subsequently held Research Associate/Postdoc Research Fellow positions in the Case Western Reserve University, USA, and Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany. He held the Newton Advanced Fellowship from Royal Society, UK and the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. He is selected as highly cited researchers at 2017-2020 by Clarivate Analytics. His current research interests are advanced energy materials, including dendrite-free lithium metal anode, lithium sulfur batteries, and electrocatalysis, especially the structure design and full demonstration of advanced energy materials in working devices. His h-index is 129 now. His is the Advisor Editor of Angew. Chem., Associate Editor of J Energy Chem & Energy Storage Mater. He is sitting on the advisory board of Matter, Adv Funct Mater, ChemSusChem, J Mater Chem A, Chem Commun, and so on. He is the deputy head of the expert group on energy storage and smart grid of the national key research and development plan. He has won the first prize of Natural Science of the Ministry of Education, the first prize of Fundamental Science of the Chemical Engineering Society.

Till Fuchs
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Title: "Tuning the Electrochemo-mechanical Properties of the Lithium Metal Anode by Mixing with Carbon-Nanotubes for use in Solid-State-Batteries"

Till Fuchs is a materials scientist currently working on his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Jürgen Janek at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. His main interest is the morphological analysis and visualization of the interface between Solid Electrolytes and Lithium Metal Anodes.

Lisette Haarmann
Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany

Title: "On the Cause of Pore Formation and the Limitation of Pore Annihilation at Lithium Metal/Solid electrolyte Interfaces"

since 2019: PhD studies at Materials Modelling Division, Technical University of Darmstadt
2017 – 2018: Erasmus semester and internship in the Materials Modeling group of Prof. Bernasconi, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
2016 – 2019: Master studies in Materials Science, Technical University of Darmstadt
2013 – 2016: Bachelor studies in Materials Science, Technical University of Darmstadt

Tjark T. K. Ingber
University of Münster, Germany

Title: "Challenges of Zero-Excess Lithium Metal Batteries and how to overcome them"

Tjark Ingber is a PhD student in the group of Prof. Dr. Martin Winter at the MEET Battery Research Center at Münster University in Münster, Germany. He joined MEET in 2019 for his master thesis after attaining his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry in Berlin. In his current research, he is working on ways to overcome the challenges of Zero-Excess / Anode-free Lithium Metal Batteries with liquid electrolyte systems.

Yannik Moryson
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Title: "Enhancing the performance in Li-ion batteries by plasma polymer coating of Li-metal anodes"

Yannik Moryson is a PhD. student since 2019 in the working group of Prof. Jürgen Janek at the physical chemistry department of Justus Liebig University Giessen. His research topic is the creation and characterization of protective coatings by plasma and ALD on cathode materials and Li-metal anodes for use in Li-ion batteries.

Svenja-Katharina Otto
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Title: "Lithium Metal Reactivity: The Impact of the Surface Reaction Layer on the Lithium Anode"

Svenja-K. Otto is a chemist doing her PhD research under supervision of Professor Jürgen Janek at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen in Germany since 2019. Her field of expertise is surface analytics with a special focus on ToF-SIMS. For her PhD research she investigates lithium surfaces to draw conclusions for the anode interface properties in batteries. The given presentation will be about the reactivity of lithium towards the atmosphere gases and the impact of forming reaction layers on the lithium anode performance.

Luise Riegger
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Title: "Instability of Li₇SiPS₈ Solid Electrolyte at The Lithium Metal Anode and Interphase Formation"

Luise M. Riegger graduated with a Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2018. She is currently a PhD student in the research group of Professor Jürgen Janek at Justus Liebig University in Giessen. Her research interests include the stability of interfaces between solid electrolytes and metallic lithium in all-solid-state batteries, as well as the kinetic growth and composition of interphases formed upon contact.

Kay Schönherr
Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Title: "Efficient processing of thin and tailored Lithium-metal Anodes for next-generation Batteries"

Kay Schönherr, born in 1984, received his diploma in chemical engineering in 2015 at the Technische Universität in Dresden and is a researcher at the battery center of Fraunhofer IWS, since then. He developed the coating technologies and processes in the field of lithium melt deposition as part of his research work.

Dr. Marian C. Stan
University of Münster, Germany

Title: "The role of Li-intermetallic and thickness validation on the electrochemical performance of lithium metal anodes"

Marian Cristian Stan received his PhD degree in natural sciences in 2011 from University of Münster under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Martin Winter. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at MEET Battery Research Center. His research interests are mainly focuses on synthesis, preparation and design of high-capacity electrode materials and interfacial coatings of lithium metal electrodes for high energy density lithium metal batteries (LMB).

Julia Wellmann
Helmholtz-Institute Münster, IEK-12, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

Title: "Mechanochemical Modification: A Novel Approach to Form an Effective SEI on Lithium Metal Anodes"

Julia Wellmann is currently a PhD student at the University of Münster and the Helmholtz-Institute Münster, a branch of the Forschungszentrum Jülich, in the group of Prof. Martin Winter, jointly supervised by Prof. Elie Paillard (Politecnico di Milano). She has been working on lithium metal batteries since her bachelor thesis in 2016 and in 2019 she started her PhD focused on solid electrolyte interphase formation on next generation metal anodes such as lithium metal and calcium metal.

Dr. Chen-Zi Zhao
Tsinghua University, China

Title: "Regulating Li-ion migration in solid-state electrolytes for Li metal anodes"

Chen-Zi Zhao received her Ph.D. degree from Department of Chemical Engineering (2020) and B. Eng. from School of Materials Science and Engineering (2015), Tsinghua University. Her main areas of research address energy-storage materials, including Li metal anodes and solid-state electrolytes.