Dr. Y. Shirley Meng
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory appointed Y. Shirley Meng to be Chief Scientist at the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) with a joint appointment as a professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at The University of Chicago. She assumes the position in January 2022. Dr. Meng joined ECS as a graduate student in 2007 and calls the Society her “professional home.” She is on the Society’s Board of Directors and serves as Chair of the ECS Battery Division.
“To tackle the climate crisis, sustainable and resilient energy storage is one of the most important technologies humanity needs. I am excited and humbled to take up the role of ACCESS chief scientist. At the same time, as a faculty member of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, I hope to build an innovation ecosystem where we can train the next generation workforce, foster meaningful relations with industry both domestic and international, and make breakthroughs in energy storage technologies in the decade to come,” said Dr. Meng.
Y. Shirley Meng
A leader in energy storage research, Dr. Meng joined the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 2009. She currently holds the Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies and is Professor of NanoEngineering and Materials Science. She was Founding Director of UCSD’s Sustainable Power and Energy Center and has served since 2019 as Inaugural Director of the Institute for Materials Discovery and Design.
Dr. Meng completed her PhD in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005, supervised by Gerbrand Ceder. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. Meng joined the University of Florida in 2008 as Assistant Professor of Materials Science. Dr. Meng is the author of more than 225 publications; one book chapter; and four issued and six pending patents. She has been involved in startup companies including South 8 Technologies which is commercializing a liquefied gas electrolyte which makes possible a new class of battery that can operate at -112°F.
Awards Dr. Meng has received include the 2018 International Coalition for Energy Storage and Innovation (ICESI) Inaugural Young Career Award, American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award, and Finalist for the Blavatnik National Award; 2017 IUMRS-Singapore Young Scientist Research Award; 2016 ECS C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award; 2014 BASF and Volkswagen Science Award in Electrochemistry; 2013 UCSD Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Collaboratories Award; and 2011 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award.
ACCESS
The Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) is a catalyst for innovation. It is comprised of scientists and engineers from across the lab working collaboratively to solve complex energy storage problems through multidisciplinary research. ACCESS works with public- and private-sector partners to bring battery innovations to the marketplace, providing processes, materials, performance testing data, and finished cells to industries ranging from transportation to manufacturing. In her new position, Meng will help drive energy storage research strategy at Argonne.
Argonne National Laboratory is recognized as a global leader in energy storage research. Over the past 50 years, the pivotal discoveries of Argonne scientists and engineers have helped invigorate the U.S. battery manufacturing industry, aided the transition of the U.S. automotive fleet toward plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, and enabled the integration of greater renewable energy use for long duration grid storage.
Join ECS in congratulating Dr. Meng!
