Pennington, NJ – The Electrochemical Society (ECS) announces the awarding of the 2021 ECS Summer Fellowships. Krishnakanth Sada received the Edward G. Weston Fellowship; Derrick Butler received the Joseph W. Richards Fellowship; Wesley Chang received the F. M. Becket Fellowship; and Sathish Rajendran received the H. H. Uhlig Fellowship. These fellowship awards assist students in the months of June through August pursue work of interest to the Society. The recipients must be enrolled in a college or university and be a member of ECS. At the end of the award period, the recipients are required to submit a brief resume or abstract suitable for publication in The Electrochemical Society Interface concerning the work performed during the fellowship period.
Krishnakanth Sada was awarded the 2021 Edward G. Weston Fellowship to pursue his project, “Structural Diversity of AxMn3O7 (A=Li, Na K and Zn) Class of Layered Oxide Insertion Materials: Versatile Battery Cathodes.” Sada is in the final year of his PhD at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, with Prof. Prabeer Barpanda as PhD advisor. He has an H-index of 7 and has published nine articles and one conference proceeding publication. Sada completed his BS and MS (2014) in Chemistry at Kakatiya University, India. He was an INSPIRE Scholar from 2009-2014 and 2016-2021.
With support from the Newton-Bhabha Fund PhD Placement Program, he visited the University of Cambridge from November 2020 – March 2021. In 2019, as Japan Society for the Promotion of Science HOPE Fellow, he attended the 11th HOPE Meeting with the 2019 Nobel Laureates in Okinawa, Japan.
Sada now works at the Faraday Materials Laboratory (FaMaL) and explores the synthesis-structure-electrochemistry of economic battery cathodes. The project has led to the development of suites of novel cathode materials based on AxM3O7 (A= Li/Na/K/Zn/Mg/Ca/Al; M= Mn/V) chemistry. The structural flexibility of layered A2M3O7 class of materials has paved a new approach for the rational designing of robust (non)aqueous battery electrode materials.
Derrick Butler received the 2021 Joseph W. Richards Fellowship for “Exploring 2D Materials in Biosensing of Small Molecules and Bacteria.” He is currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), under the supervision of Dr. Aida Ebrahimi. His focus in the Ebrahimi Bioanalytical and Biosensor Engineering Lab is on the development of electrochemical, electronic, and optical analytical platforms for biomedical and environmental applications, ranging from drug screening to medical diagnostics, and food, soil, and water monitoring. His H-index is 5; he has published seven research articles (three as first or co-first author); is co-first author of one review paper; and authored a chapter on impedimetric detection of bacterial viability for a book that is currently being published. At Penn State, Butler received the Harry G. Miller Fellowship in Engineering Award (2020) and University Graduate Fellowship (2018-2019). Butler was a member of the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society at the University of Vermont where he completed his BS in Physics (2015). He received an MSE in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (2017). Butler serves as President of the ECS Pennsylvania State University Student Chapter.
Wesley Chang’s 2021 F. M. Becket Fellowship project is “Understanding chemo-mechanical behavior of lithium metal anodes with techniques including operando acoustic transmission.” He is a PhD student at Princeton University with Dr. Daniel Steingart as advisor. Chang’s PhD thesis focuses on interfaces and interphases for anode-free lithium metal cells, developing a new operando ultrasound characterization and imaging technique for batteries, and fast-charging and temperature-driven electrode phase behaviors. As a Princeton Graduate Fellow, Chang participates in the Scholars Institute Fellows Program, advising first-generation low-income graduate students on STEM careers. He received his BS (2014) and MS (2016) at Stanford University where he received Questbridge Match Scholarships. In 2016-2017, Chan worked on grid-scale storage batteries as a Battery Scientist at Primus Power. Chang has published 10 articles.
Sathish Rajendran will research “Engineering electrode-electrolyte interfaces of all-solid-state electrochemical cells,” with support from the 2021 H. H. Uhlig Fellowship. The goal is in situ probing of solid-state battery interfaces to elucidate the electro-chemo-mechanical properties at relevant length scales. Rajendran is currently a fourth year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering (2018-2022) at Wayne State University. Dr. Leela Arava is his advisor. Sathish attended the 236th ECS Meeting through a 2019 ECS High-Temperature Energy, Materials, and Processes Division Travel Grant. He received the Thomas C. Rumble Graduate Fellowship for the years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Rajendran attended the 2016 AcSIR Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Summer Training Program at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology with a 2016 Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (AcSYR) Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Fellowship. His H-index is 5; he has published 15 articles and holds two patents.
The deadline for 2022 ECS Summer Fellowship applications is January 15, 2022.
The Electrochemical Society
ECS, a prestigious nonprofit professional society, has led the world in electrochemistry, solid state science and technology, and allied subjects since 1902. By publishing research, hosting meetings, fostering education, and collaborating with other organizations, ECS advances scientific theory and practice. Our 8,000+ member community in 85+ countries develops innovative solutions to major global challenges. The ECS Digital Library, hosted on IOPscience, encompasses 160,000+ journal and magazine articles and meeting abstracts, and the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, the oldest peer-reviewed journal in its field. Scientists, engineers, and industry leaders share relevant scientific developments, network, and expand research horizons at ECS biannual, co-hosted, and sponsored meetings. Learn more about the history of ECS at www.electrochem.org/history-ecs.
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