Carl Wagner Memorial Award
Towards Platinum-free Fuel Cells for Affordable Zero-emission Vehicles
by Yushan Yan
Yushan Yan is the Henry B. du Pont Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware (UD). He previously served as the Founding Associate Dean for Research and Entrepreneurship at UD; Department Chair at the University of California, Riverside; and Senior Staff Engineer at AlliedSignal. Recognition of his research includes the Donald Breck Award from the International Zeolite Association; Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award; Braskem Award for Excellence in Materials Science and Engineering; R. H. Wilhelm Award for Chemical Reaction Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; ECS Energy Technology Division Research Award; and Fellow of The Electrochemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and National Academy of Inventors.
A Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, Professor Yan is an inventor of over 20 issued US patents that contributed to several startups including NanoH2O and Versogen (for which he is the Founder and CEO). He is the author of more than 270 publications that are widely cited (24,000+ citations, h-index of 85, Web of Science; 30,000+ citations, h-index of 93, Google Scholar). Prof. Yan received his BS in Chemical Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, and PhD in Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He has supervised over 30 PhD students and more than 30 postdoctoral researchers, with over 20 of them holding faculty positions.
Olin Palladium Award
Pitting Corrosion Retrospective
by Gerald S. Frankel
Gerald S. Frankel is Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Director of the Fontana Corrosion Center at Ohio State University (OSU). His primary research interests are in the passivation and localized corrosion of metals and alloys, corrosion inhibition, protective coatings, and atmospheric corrosion. He earned his BS in Materials Science Engineering from Brown University, and the DS in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining OSU in 1995, Professor Frankel was a post-doctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Technical Institute and then a Research Staff Member at the IBM Watson Research Center.
The author of over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, he is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society and Corrosion Science and Technology. A Fellow of The Electrochemical Society, NACE International, and ASM International, his research has been recognized by the 2015 W.R. Whitney Award from NACE International; 2011 U.R. Evans Award from the UK Institute of Corrosion; 2010 OSU Distinguished Scholar Award; 2010 ECS Corrosion Division H.H. Uhlig Award; and 2004 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award for senior U.S. scientists. President Obama appointed Prof. Frankel to serve as a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board from 2012-2016. In 2016, he became the Director of a DOE-funded Engineering Frontier Research Center focused on the performance of nuclear waste forms.
ECS Edward Goodrich Acheson Award
Investigation of Batteries over Multiple and Length and Time Scales
by Esther S. Takeuchi, Stony Brook University
Esther Takeuchi is SUNY Distinguished Professor and William and Jane Knapp Chair in Energy and the Environment at Stony Brook University, U.S. She holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory as Chair of the Interdisciplinary Science Department. Prof. Takeuchi received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, U.S., with a double major in chemistry and history, and a PhD in Chemistry from the Ohio State University, U.S. Prior to her academic appointments, Prof. Takeuchi worked at Greatbatch, Inc., where her achievements in lithium battery research, particularly for implantable applications, led to several technological innovations. Her work was instrumental in the successful development of the lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery, the power source of life-saving implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs). A prolific inventor, Prof. Takeuchi has over 150 patents.
Prof. Takeuchi’s accomplishments have been widely recognized. President Obama awarded her the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Prof. Takeuchi was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and is a Charter Member of the National Academy of Innovation. She received the 2013 E. V. Murphree and Astellas Awards from the American Chemical Society, 1995 ECS Battery Division Technology Award, and 2003 Woman of Distinction Award. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of The Electrochemical Society, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the 2018 European Inventor Award for non-EPO countries, 2019 Walston Chubb Innovation Award from Sigma Xi, and an honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Notre Dame University, US. Prof. Takeuchi is past President of The Electrochemical Society.
