September 30 is the deadline to cast votes
Voting is now open for the ECS Battery Division election. Along with candidates for officer positions and Members at Large, this year, two candidates—Neil Dasgupta and Rana Mohtadi—are running for the volunteer position of division treasurer. Their biographical sketches and statements follow.
We urge all ECS Battery Division members to take part in this important election! Voting instructions are below.
Neil Dasgupta
Biography
Neil Dasgupta is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering and Battery Technology Lead for the Electric Vehicle Center at the University of Michigan (UM). He also serves as Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) entitled “MUSIC: Mechano-Chemical Understanding of Solid-Ion Conductors.” Prof. Dasgupta’s research is at the intersection of materials, energy, and manufacturing. Interdisciplinarity is at his core. He bridges gaps between communities that are central to electrochemistry and batteries, including in situ/operando analysis, electro-chemo-mechanics, multi-scale modeling, and surface chemistry.
Prof. Dasgupta holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005), MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Stanford University, 2006), and PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering (Stanford University, 2011). Prior to joining UM in 2014, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2024, he served as Chair of the Batteries Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and was elected Chair of the 2027 GRC on Nanomaterials for Applications in Energy Technology. He has published >100 papers in the field of materials for energy conversion, with diverse applications in electrochemistry including batteries (solid state and liquid), photoelectrochemistry, and electrocatalysis. Prof. Dasgupta received the NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), AFOSR Young Investigator Award (YIP), 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship, AVS Paul Holloway Young Investigator Award, SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, Scialog Fellowship in Advanced Energy Storage, ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, and U.S. Department of Energy EERE Postdoctoral Research Award (SunShot Fellowship).
Statement of Candidacy
I am proud to have called ECS my home community since I attended my first ECS meeting as a graduate student 20 years ago. I have been an active and engaged member of the ECS Battery Division for more than 10 years, serving the division as an elected Member at Large since 2020. I care deeply about the division and ECS’s success since it has been so instrumental in shaping my career. As a five-time symposium organizer, I understand the importance of the division’s financial stability and success in ensuring that we all have the resources needed to keep ECS at the forefront of battery conferences worldwide. I also have a strong track record of fundraising for symposia, as evidenced by our highly successful Batteries GRC in 2024, where we raised and provided financial support for many attendees. I am especially passionate about providing as much financial assistance as possible to early-career scientists, including students and postdocs. I am also dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. If elected Treasurer, I will ensure that funds are allocated in an equitable manner, and that we do everything in our power to support attendance of members from historically underrepresented groups and geographic locations worldwide.
I have strong leadership experience, serving as Deputy Director of a DOE EFRC focused on solid state batteries (MUSIC), as well as serving as the Battery Technology Lead for the $120 Million Electric Vehicle Center at University of Michigan. I also have strong connections with the industry, having collaborated with diverse stakeholders in the EV and battery space, including Ford, Bosch, 3M, Toyota, General Motors, Nissan, and Mercedes-Benz. One of my visions as Treasurer is to further strengthen the ties between the ECS Battery Division and ECS Industry Members. To ensure that the division meets national laboratories’ specific needs, I will use my strong collaborations to work with our lab colleagues.
From a technology perspective, I span many aspects of battery electrochemistry, from fundamental mechanistic investigations (our group pioneered several in situ/operando platforms), to applied engineering methodologies (we fabricated hundreds of multi-layer, multi-Ah pouch cells at the University of Michigan Battery Pilot Line). We published seminal papers in the fields of Li metal anodes, solid state batteries, and fast-charging of Li-ion batteries. We also work in the fields of beyond Li-ion chemistry (e.g., Na metal anodes) and battery recycling/remanufacturing. This breadth of experience will allow me to ensure that the ECS Battery Division is addressing the needs of both present and future technologies.
Rana Mohtadi
Biography
Rana Mohtadi is Senior Principal Scientist at the Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRINA) and holds a Principal Investigator affiliate position at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research AIMR at Tohoku University. She has established and led research programs aimed at the design and demonstration of high value materials for chemical and electrochemical energy storage technologies. Dr. Mohtadi’s research encompasses the development of liquid and solid state electrolyte materials for mono and multivalent beyond Li-ion batteries, the creation of environmentally friendly chemistries, enabling sustainable batteries, and developing hydrogen storage materials. Her groundbreaking work has led to transformative material advancements resulting in technology handovers for application considerations and influential peer reviewed articles. This includes her pioneering work that set a new trend in electrolytes research in multivalent batteries as it closed several key gaps and uncovered unexpected fundamental interfacial phenomena, thanks to the highly performing electrolytes class she created based on boron-hydrogen compounds.
Dr. Mohtadi received her PhD in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina where she researched Proton Exchange Membrane PEM Fuel Cells. Her dissertation led the way in accessing and understanding the impact of sulfur on NOx impurities on the performance of hydrogen fuel cells. She has published in the areas of batteries, hydrogen storage materials, and fuel cells, and has been awarded more than 35 patents. The recipient of the R&D100 award (2011), Dr. Mohtadi was named in “40 under 40” by Automotive News (2014) and Crain’s Detroit Business News (2014). In the 2015 “We Run On Brain Power” initiative, the governor of Michigan recognized and showcased her as a face of cutting edge innovation. In 2024, she became a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society.
Statement of candidacy
It is an honor to be nominated for the position of Treasurer of the ECS Battery Division. The Electrochemical Society (ECS) has been my home society since I was a graduate student. As a proud ECS family member, the division’s growth and prosperity is a top priority. If elected Treasurer, in addition to ensuring the division’s financial health, I will work on creating opportunities that raise funds geared toward expanding its reach and influence. Namely, through consultation with the division’s leadership, I will promote educational webinars as platforms that offer learning and training in fundamental and applied battery R&D topics for students and professionals. In line with this effort, I will seek support for focused Interface issues that reinforce these educational possibilities and provide cutting-edge advancements. Additionally, I will promote symposia that involve industrial participation to share progress and gaps and offer networking opportunities for recruitments and collaborations. I believe that these efforts would be most effective through facile and wide access to information. Thus, I will explore sponsorships that can drive and expand the “Free the Science” initiative.
I strongly believe in empowering and supporting minorities. If elected, I will propose opportunities aimed at highlighting their contributions and seek sponsorships to expand recognitions and rewards provided by the ECS Battery Division, including those celebrating early and mid-career scientists.
Throughout my industrial career, I have consistently demonstrated entrepreneurship in fostering innovation and growth and leading highly successful large-scale programs. If elected as Treasurer, I look forward to applying these skills to serve our division. I sincerely appreciate your vote.
Voting instructions
Proceed to the electronic proxy ballot and follow these easy steps to cast your vote.
- Enter your ECS member number and password. (Your member number is located under MY ACCOUNT/ECS ID when you log in to the ECS website.)
- Your electronic proxy ballot opens after you log on. Contact ECS Customer Service if you have trouble logging on.
- Enter your vote for each office.
- You can only vote once.
Thank you for participating in this important election!
