Plenary Keynote Program (view)

R&D Stream
Next-Generation Battery Research (view)
Lithium-Ion Development & Commercialization (view)

Manufacturing Stream
High Performance Battery Manufacturing (view)
Lithium-Ion Development & Commercialization (view)

Applications Stream
Advances in Automotive Power Applications (view)
Power Applications for Consumer Electronics (view)
Emerging Energy Storage Applications (view)

Engineering Stream
Battery Safety (view)
Battery Management Systems (view)

Plenary Keynote Program

Kurt Kelty, Senior Director, Cell Supply Chain & Business Development, Tesla Motors

Mr. Kelty is the Senior Director of Battery Technology at Tesla Motors in Palo Alto, California. His team in Palo Alto is responsible for setting and implementing Tesla's battery cell usage strategy. Kelty is responsible for the technical exchanges and commercial negotiations with each of the battery cell suppliers and early stage battery cell developers. He leads the team that is particularly focused on evaluating the performance and reliability of cells. Kelty also leads the partnerships and battery cell material sourcing efforts at the Gigafactory, Tesla's battery manufacturing facility in Nevada. He is responsible for forming and implementing relationships to co-locate at the Gigafactory or to source materials from external suppliers. Ultimately, Kelty is responsible for all the material costs and performance of the battery cells made at the Gigafactory. Kelty is also responsible for sales of Tesla's Energy Products in Japan. Before joining Tesla, Kelty worked for Matsushita (Panasonic) for nearly fifteen years, seven of those years in Japan. At Panasonic, Kelty worked in various planning and marketing capacities related to Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries. During the last 5 years, he founded and led Panasonic's battery research lab in Silicon Valley and created R&D alliances between Panasonic and other battery and fuel cell developers in the U.S. Kelty received his B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College in 1986 and his MSc from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1997. He is the author of over 16 patents.

Jeff Dahn, Ph.D., FRSC, Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Science, NSERC/Tesla Canada Industrial Research Chair, and Canada Research Chair, Dalhousie University

Dr. Dahn is recognized as one of the pioneering developers of the lithium-ion battery that is now used worldwide in laptop computers and cell-phones. Dahn's recent work has concentrated on the application of Combinatorial Materials Science methods to battery and fuel cell materials problems. He is the author of over 500 refereed journal papers and co-inventor of 58 inventions with patents issued or filed. He obtained his B.Sc. in Physics from Dalhousie University (1978) and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1982. Dahn then worked at the National Research Council of Canada (82-85) and at Moli Energy Limited (85-90) before taking up a faculty position in the Physics Department at Simon Fraser University in 1990. He returned to Dalhousie University in 1996.

Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Ph.D., CEO, Founder, Chairman, Cadenza Innovation, LLC; Founder, Boston Power

Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud is renowned for her pioneering work in developing and commercializing Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for portable electronics, electric vehicles and utilities.  She currently serves as CEO of Cadenza Innovation, Inc., a company she founded in 2012. With a mission to bring high-energy density, low cost and safe Li-ion batteries to the EV and grid storage markets through licensing of its technology to global manufacturers, Cadenza has been awarded funding from ARPA-E, the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York – and in July secured Series A funding in an oversubscribed round. Earlier in her career, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud founded and served as CEO and International Chairman of Boston-Power, an innovative energy storage company which she grew from a start-up to a global organization with technology centers in Beijing and Boston as well as multiple Asia-based Six-Sigma manufacturing locations. Her work has earned her numerous awards, including recognition as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, an organization for which she also serves as an advisor on global innovation, renewable transport and finance.  Dr. Lampe-Onnerud holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden, and conducted post-doctoral work at MIT.

Xi Shen, Ph.D., Senior Director and General Manager, BYD EDV Batteries, China

WenFeng Jiang, Ph.D., R&D General Manager, BYD EDV Batteries, China

Next-Generation Battery Research

Daniel P. Abraham, Ph.D., Materials Scientist, Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory  

Daniel Abraham leads the effort at Argonne to identify performance degradation mechanisms in lithium-ion cells. He is responsible for the development of advanced diagnostic tools and techniques that include diffraction, microscopy, spectroscopy and electrochemistry methodologies. His work enables the development of battery materials and components that enhance cell performance, life, and safety. Dr. Abraham received his Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Susan Babinec, Senior Commercialization Advisor, ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy

Sue Babinec is a Senior Commercialization Advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). She helps lead ARPA-E's Technology-to-Market effort, which focuses on preparing breakthrough energy technologies for the transition from lab to market. Babinec has spent her career focused on research and commercial programs in materials, electro-active materials, displays, sensors, and electrochemistry, with extensive experience in Li-ion batteries. Prior to ARPA-E, Babinec served as Technical Director for A123 Systems, Inc., where she led research groups innovating in Li-ion materials and cell technologies and also developed an analytical organization in support of the company’s global business. Babinec spent the first 20+ years of her career at The Dow Chemical Corporation, where she was awarded the Inventor of the Year and was the company’s first woman Corporate Fellow. Her role also included Scientist Partner to the Dow Venture Capital Organization-Physical Sciences, leading technical analysis of investment opportunities and hands-on partnering in startup investments. Babinec also co-invented a low-cost display technology that was spun out as the venture-funded Aveso Displays. Babinec received her MS in Physical Science from Michigan State University and BS in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. She holds 40+ patents and has authored or co-authored dozens of journal articles and book chapters on her areas of expertise. She is an active member of The American Chemical Society and The Electrochemical Society.

Chunmei Ban, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Center of Chemistry & Nanoscience, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Chunmei Ban graduated from Tianjin University with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrochemistry, and from State University of New York at Binghamton with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Dr. Ban joined NREL in 2008 and has focused her research on developing new materials for energy storage and conversion. She has extensive experience in synthesis of nanostructured materials, employing electrochemical analytic methods, et-situ/in-situ X-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy for the investigation of electrochemical properties and structure. Her current research is focused on the synthesis and analysis of nano-materials with desirable structures and morphologies as Li+host materials, the fabrication of nano-architecture electrodes for electrochemical systems, and surface atomic modification of electrode materials for the improved performance.

Juliette Billaud, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Energy Storage, Paul Scherrer Institut

Vyacheslav Chetveryk, Team Member, Research & Development, Gresem Innovation LLC

Brian J. Ingram, Ph.D., Materials Engineer, Chemical Science and Engineering Division, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, Argonne National Laboratory

Brian Ingram is a Materials Engineer at Argonne Nation Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. His research focuses on fundamental understanding of charge transport between materials in batteries and fuel cells with an emphasis on the fundamental defect and electronic transport mechanisms between materials. Understanding these mechanisms is critical to designing more efficient energy storage and conversion devices for transportation, grid storage, and consumer electronics. Dr. Ingram is the principal investigator of the Multivalent battery thrust of the Joint Center for Energy Research (JCESR), a Department of Energy’s Energy Innovation Hub, which integrates basic research with engineering technology to accelerate scientific discovery for efficient and reliable energy storage systems that – compared to today’s technologies – store more energy, charge and discharge faster, and cost far less. He has published over 35 scientific articles on the topic on advanced energy materials.

Sam Jaffe, Managing Director, Cairn ERA, Cairn Energy Research Advisors

Sam is the founder and Managing Director of Cairn Energy Research Advisors. He has more than 10 years of experience as an analyst, consultant and executive in the energy storage industry. Prior to Cairn ERA, he has worked at Navigant Research and IDC as an analyst and has also served as CEO at Panea Energy and Cygnus Energy Storage. He is an authority on battery usage on the grid, transportation and consumer electronics. He is an accomplished public speaker and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and events throughout the world, including the Battery Show, Interbattery Korea, Stockage D’Energie and the Energy Storage Association annual meeting. He is frequently quoted in multiple press outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. He lives and works in Boulder, CO.

Dong Woon Kim, MSc, Engineer, McScience Inc.

Dong Woon Kim is a research engineer of the R&D division at McScience Inc. His team works to research, develop, and improve secondary battery parameter testing systems. His work is focused in the data management and analysis regarding the results of battery test experiments. Dong Woon has an MSc in Physics from Imperial College London.

Qi Liu, Ph.D., Research Scientist, X-Ray Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory

Qi Liu has been working at Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab since November 2014. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. His research was mainly on new anode/cathode materials development and in-depth investigation of process-structure-property relationship in all kinds of batteries (fuel cells, Li-ion batteries and All Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries) by using in situ synchrotron techniques and existing tools. So far, he has 20+ peer reviewed papers and 5+ invited conference presentations. 

Wenjuan Liu Mattis, Ph.D., Vice President, Research & Development, Microvast, Inc.

Dr. Mattis received her Ph.D. degree in Material Science and Engineering Department at The Pennsylvania State University and joined The Dow Chemical Company developing novel cathode, anode, electrolyte, electrolyte additives of high-energy and high-power lithium-ion batteries for application in EV and consumer electronics. Dr. Mattis joined Microvast, Inc. in 2013. She is leading the R&D efforts developing high-energy electrode materials and advanced batteries, targeting safer, cheaper and higher-performance energy storage devices, including but not limited to lithium-ion batteries, for the applications in EV, HEV, PHEV and EESS. She works with multiple businesses and core R&D to maximize the innovation pipeline for Microvast R&D function, and works on cross-department communication and coordination, raising and executing IP strategy of Microvast, and taking charge of all aspects of the global intellectual property portfolio.

Lorenzo Mangolini, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Riverside

Lorenzo Mangolini received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and received his B.S. from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy. His Ph.D. work focused on the synthesis and characterization of silicon quantum dots. Upon completion of his Ph.D., Lorenzo joined the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota as a Post-Doc, working on the fabrication of titania and zinc-oxide based photovoltaic devices. He later joined Cima Nanotech, Inc. as a Senior Researcher, working on the development and large-area fabrication of transparent conductive coating for applications in the electronic industry. His research areas include development of devices based on nanostructured materials for the solution of energy-related issues; characterization of nano-materials; Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) synthesis of nanostructures and semiconductor quantum dots; and, advanced process characterization and modeling of gas-phase reactive systems.

Asmae Mokrini, Ph.D., Senior Research Officer, Automotive and Surface Transportation, National Research Council of Canada

Dr. Mokrini is the team lead for Materials for Energy Technologies at the Automotive and Surface Transportation portfolio at the National Research Council of Canada. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Chemical Engineering department of the University of Barcelona in 1998, and an industrial Master degree in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University Menedez Pelayo in Madrid in 2000. Her research interests are mainly on the development of all solid polymer batteries with lithium metal anode. She joined NRC in 2003, where she is presently managing a team of 10 researchers and technical officers working on battery materials and components development, testing protocols and R2R manufacturing of different battery technologies for EVs.

Sébastien Patoux, Ph.D., Battery Division Manager, CEA – LITEN Institute

Sébastien Patoux is a graduate of the University of Picardie Jules Verne – Amiens (France) in material sciences. After a Ph.D. on cathode materials for Li-ion batteries in 2003 with Pr. C. Masquelier and J-M. Tarascon, he joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2003-2004 to work for the Battery for Advanced Transportation Technology program. He went back to France to become a project leader at the CEA-Liten institute from 2005 to 2010. In 2007 he took in charge the battery materials group. Since 2010 he is manager of various laboratories and divisions related to battery and fuel cells. Today, he is in charge of the Battery Technologies Division at CEA-Liten. Dr. Patoux is involved on the battery field for almost 20 years, including 10 years of management. He holds 20 patents and more than 40 publications in the domain.

Koukou Suu, Ph.D., ULVAC Fellow, General Manager, Global Marketing and Technology Strategy, ULVAC, Inc.

Dr. Koukou Suu graduated and received a PhD in Engineering from Tohoku University, Japan in 1988 and 1993 respectively. He joined ULVAC, Inc. in 1993 and was involved in developing numerous technologies. He was the GM of ISET from 2008 to 2014. He is now ULVAC Fellow and GM of Global Market & Technology Strategy.

Carl Thoemmes, Vice President, Sales, Silatronix, Inc.

Carl Thoemmes is Vice President of Sales at Silatronix, a Madison, WI-based company currently commercializing new organosilicon electrolyte materials to enable extreme performance in Li-ion batteries. Carl was previously Director of Global Account Management at Flex where he managed a P&L in the industrial products segment. Prior to that he was a Global Account Manager at ICCNexergy (now known as Inventus Power). Carl has over 15 years of global technical sales, product development, and product management experience in the medical and industrial electronics markets. He has a background in Electronic Engineering and is based out of Chicago.

Wei Tong, Ph.D., Scientist/Principal Investigator, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Wei Tong is a Scientist/Principal Investigator in Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Afterwards she joined Wildcat Discovery Technologies, Inc. as a Scientist. Dr. Tong has over 10 years’ experience in battery materials research and development, including 3 years’ experience in combinatorial material design and high-throughput electrochemical screening. She specializes in chemical synthesis of solid-state materials with emphasis on combinatorial library design and high-throughput screening of battery materials. Her extensive experience and practical knowledge in battery materials research have led to over 10 inventions in the battery field. Her research interests also extend to in-depth understanding of the electrochemical reaction mechanism within the bulk electrode and at the interface through the advanced characterization techniques.

Shep Wolsky, Ph.D., Founder, International Battery Seminar & Exhibit

Dr. Shep Wolsky is a veteran of WWII, having served two years in the Navy during WWII as an electronic technician. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Boston University in 1952 and spent 10 years working on the development of the transistor and its first commercial application, a transistor-powered hearing aid. He was Vice President of R&D at Duracell for 15 years and helped introduce Li-metal primary batteries, e.g., Li-sulfur dioxide and Li-thionyl chloride. He aided Sony on the introduction of the Li-ion battery and obtained the first U.S. government approval for the transportation of Li-ion batteries. Dr. Wolsky also consulted on the development of NiMH batteries. He has had more than 100 clients in his consulting career and remains active in the battery field. He initiated the popular International Battery Seminar series and has also organized series of seminar focusing Capacitors and recycling. He has authored more than 100 technical papers. At the age of 90, he is probably the oldest widely active consultant in the battery field.

Huolin Xin, Ph.D., Associate Scientist, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Huolin Xin graduated from the Physics Department of Cornell University in 2011 and joined Brookhaven National Laboratory as a permanent staff member in 2013. He is currently an associate scientist in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is also an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Stony Brook University. His primary field of expertise lies in developing novel 3D, atomic-resolution, and in situ spectroscopic and imaging tools to probe the structural, chemical, and bonding changes of energy materials during chemical reactions or under external stimuli. His research spans the areas from tomographic and atomic-resolution chemical imaging of fuel cell nanoparticles to in situ environmental study of heterogeneous catalysts, all maintaining a strong focus on nanocharacterization of energy materials. In 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012, he received Distinguished Scholar Award, Castaing Award, and Presidential Scholar Award from professional EM societies. His work on battery materials has been selected as the 2014's Top-10 Scientific Achievements by Brookhaven Lab. His research has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and 1 patent, more than ten of which have been reported and highlighted by national media agencies. He currently operates a group consisting of one master student, one domestic Ph.D. student, one postdoc, and one foreign exchange Ph.D. students. To date, he has graduated three master students. Two of his group members/alumni have won the “Presidential Student Award” at the annual M&M conference based on their research in the group.

Jigang Zhou, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Innovation Division, Canadian Light Source Inc.; Adjunct Professor, Materials Engineering Department, Western University

Jigang Zhou, staff scientist at Canadian Light Source and adjunct professor at Western University and HIT, received his BSc and MSc in Battery Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in China and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Western University, Canada. He has 10 years of on-field battery R&D experience and almost 10 years’ synchrotron energy industrial application experience. His research activities are on developing soft X-ray spectroscopy and spectromicroscopy of on-operando electrochemical cell, combined with various nanomaterials, for their applications for clean energy including Li-ion batteries and fuel cells. Dr. Zhou is an author and co-author of ~80 refereed journals, with total citations of over 5000 and H-index of 29.

Lithium-Ion Development & Commercialization

Dan Abraham, Ph.D., Vice President, Science and Business Strategy, MPEG LA

Dan Abraham joined MPEG LA in 2012 as Vice President, Science and Business Strategy, where he is responsible for identifying new opportunities and creating new programs. Dan came to MPEG LA from Columbia University where he served as Director of Columbia Technology Ventures. Prior to Columbia University, Dan served as Vice President, Chief Technologist at GE Technology Development. He has also served as Vice President, Advanced Development for Veeco Instruments; Intellectual Properties Director and Senior Scientist at Phase Metrics, and conducted nanoscience research at The Institute for Materials Research, University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), IBM Research Laboratory Zurich and AT&T Bell Labs. Dan earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California.

Edward R. Buiel, Ph.D., President and CEO, Coulometrics, LLC

Dr. Buiel has 18 years of experience developing lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, asymmetric lead-carbon supercapacitors, carbon-based materials for various electrochemical applications, and advanced lead acid batteries for a variety of clean technology applications. Dr. Buiel received his Ph.D. in Physics from Dalhousie University where he worked to develop low-cost carbon electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Dr. Buiel has served as the Energy Storage Group Leader for MeadWestvaco and as the Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Axion Power International, Inc. During his time at Axion, he worked to develop advanced lead acid and hybrid lead/carbon supercapacitors for a variety of applications including hybrid vehicles, renewable energy installations, military, truck auxiliary power units, and various other clean technology applications. After leaving Axion, Dr. Buiel started a consulting company called Coulometrics that provides manufacturing and product development R&D services for a variety of advanced energy storage companies. These include systems and BMS development for battery companies, NiMH and LIB electrode production, and advanced materials development such as the development of natural graphite for LIB applications.

Ben Cao, Ph.D., Director & Principal Investigator, R&D, General Capacitor LLC

General Capacitor is a Florida high-tech company focused on development, manufacturing and commercialization of the high-performance lithium-ion capacitors.

George Crabtree, Ph.D., Director, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Argonne National Laboratory and University of Illinois at Chicago

George Crabtree is Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory and Professor of Physics, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). His research interests include next-generation battery technology and integrating energy science, technology, policy and societal decision-making. He has led several workshops for the Department of Energy on energy science and technology, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has testified before the U.S. Congress on the hydrogen economy, on meeting sustainable energy challenges, and on the prospects for next-generation electrical energy storage. 

Stuart Hellring, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Research & Development, Automotive Coatings, PPG

Derek C. Johnson, Ph.D., Vice President, Global R&D, A123 Systems, LLC

Dr. Derek Johnson is the Vice President of Global R&D at A123 Systems, LLC and has responsibilities focused on developing, implementing, and executing the company’s high power and high energy technology development roadmaps. Before joining A123, Derek was the Vice President of Operations & Technology Development at Prieto Battery, Inc., a company he co-founded based off of core technology that he helped develop in Prof. Prieto’s academic laboratory. At Prieto, he was responsible for stewarding technology development focused on solid-state lithium-ion cells and porous 3D electrodes for high-rate lithium-ion battery applications. Derek also interacted with key strategic partners throughout the lithium-ion value chain to identify key market entry points for the company’s proposed products and authored mutually beneficial joint development projects. He has 24 patent applications in various stages of the review process and 16 publications. Derek also sits on Symbios Technologies’ Board of Directors, for which he is the inventor of its core technology platform. Derek earned his Ph.D. and MS in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State University and a BS from the University of Florida.

Ferry Kienberger, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Keysight Labs, Keysight Technologies

Gregory K. Krumdick, Principal Systems Engineer, Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory

Boryann Liaw, Ph.D., Department Manager, Energy Storage and Advanced Vehicles, Clean Energy & Transportation Division, Idaho National Laboratory

Dr. Bor Yann Liaw is manager of the Energy Storage and Advanced Vehicles Department at Idaho National Laboratory. Before joining INL, Dr. Liaw was a specialist and tenured faculty member at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At HNEI, he focused on advanced power source systems for vehicle and energy storage applications. He received his bachelor’s in chemistry from the National Tsinghua University in Taiwan, his master’s in chemistry from the University of Georgia, and his doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. He conducted his post-doctoral fellowship research at the Max-Plank Institute of Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany. For the past three decades, Dr. Liaw has been involved in R&D projects related to electric and hybrid vehicle evaluation and advanced battery diagnostics and prognostics. His major research activities comprise laboratory and real-life battery and vehicle testing, data collection and analysis, battery modeling and simulation, battery performance and life prediction, battery rapid charging technology development, and battery diagnoses and prognoses. He also expanded his endeavors to bio-fuel cells, including sugar-air alkaline battery development, and transforming ambient energy resources into useful power sources for portable or stationary applications. Dr. Liaw has co-authored more than 150 technical papers, seven book chapters, and eight patents and patent applications. He is currently an associate editor for the Journal of Electrochemical Society and a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

Dingchang Lin, Yi Cui Laboratory, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Feng Lin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech

Dr. Feng Lin is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Tech. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Tianjin University, and an MSc degree and a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science from Colorado School of Mines (with Ryan Richards, Chaiwat Engtrakul and Anne Dillon). Prior to Virginia Tech, Feng worked at QuantumScape Corporation as a Senior Member of Technical Staff, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow (with Marca Doeff), and National Renewable Energy Lab as a Graduate Research Assistant. His expertise includes materials for batteries, smart windows and catalysis, as well as advanced analytical techniques for the in situ and operando characterization of these electrochemical systems.

Wenquan Lu, Ph.D., Principal Chemical Engineer, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory

Dr. Wenquan Lu, majoring in Chemical Engineering, received his BS in 1995 and MSEng in 1998 from Tsinghua University. Dr. Lu continued studying at Illinois Institute of Technology and received his Ph.D. in 2002. After working as postdoctoral at University of Virginia and Argonne National Laboratory, He joined Greatbatch to work on lithium primary batteries for implantable medical devices in 2006. Dr. Lu returned to Argonne as a staff scientist in 2008 and has been working on the lithium-ion batteries for Electric Vehicle applications since then. Dr. Lu’s research interest includes battery material characterization, thermal and safety analysis, and technology development of energy storage systems.

Heng Pan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dr. Heng Pan is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. from Mechanical Engineering at UC-Berkeley (2009), MS degree from Missouri S&T (2004), and BS degree from Zhejiang University (2002). He received ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award in 2015. His research interests include micro/nano additive manufacturing, electronics and photonics manufacturing, laser assisted manufacturing, and high-throughput and low-cost micro/nano-manufacturing.

Dee Strand, Ph.D., CSO, Wildcat Discovery Technologies

Dr. Dee Strand is a Senior Scientist at Wildcat Discovery Technologies. Dr. Strand has over twenty years of experience in materials research, development, and commercialization, primarily in the areas of energy storage and electronic applications. Prior to joining Wildcat in 2013, Dr. Strand served as a Research Fellow at Dow Chemical, where she was the technical lead in Dow Energy Materials, as well as the Principal Investigator on external research programs with universities and national labs on battery materials. Dr. Strand also has extensive experience in patent analysis and technical due diligence of new technologies. Dr. Strand completed her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, under the supervision of Professor John Schrag. Her Ph.D. research focused on rheology and birefringence of polymeric solutions. Dr. Strand also holds a Master of Science degree in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from North Dakota State University.

Steven J. Visco, Ph.D., CEO and CTO, PolyPlus Battery Company

Steven Visco is the Chief Executive Officer, CTO, and founder of PolyPlus Battery Company in Berkeley, California, as well as a Guest Scientist in the Materials Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Steven J. Visco currently holds 110 U.S. patents, more than 200 international patents and has authored over 70 journal articles, as well as books, monographs and other publications. Dr. Visco graduated with a BS in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in 1977 and received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Brown University in 1982. Dr. Visco then joined the staff at he Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a Principal Investigator in the Materials Sciences Division in 1984 where his research interests have included advanced batteries and fuel cells.  Steven Visco co-founded PolyPlus Battery Company in 1991. In 2013 Dr. Visco was selected by the City of Berkeley for a “Visionary Award” for his work in next generation batteries. Steve also serves on the Technical Advisory Boards for the Conrad Foundation and the CIC Energigune Institute in Miñano, Spain and was awarded the 2011 International Battery Association Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Lithium-Air and Lithium-Water Batteries.” PolyPlus Battery Company was selected by TIME magazine for its 50 Best Inventions of 2011 Issue, and was selected for a Gold Edison Award in 2012. In May 2015 Dr. Visco was elected a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

David L. Wood, III, Ph.D., Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Team Lead & Fuel Cell Technologies Program Manager, Energy & Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

David Wood is a Senior Staff Scientist, Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Team Lead, Fuel Cell Technologies Program Manager, and UT Bredesen Center Faculty Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researching novel electrode architectures, advanced processing methods, manufacturing science, and materials characterization for lithium ion batteries and low-temperature fuel cells, and has been employed there since 2009. He is a well-known energy conversion and storage researcher with an industrial and academic career that began in 1995. From 1997 to 2002, he was employed by General Motors Corporation and SGL Carbon Group, excelling at applied R&D related to automotive and stationary PEFC technology. Later work (2003-2009) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Cabot Corporation focused on elucidation of key chemical degradation mechanisms, development of accelerated testing methods, and component development.  Dr. Wood received his BS in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1994, his MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Electrochemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2007.

Rachid Yazami, Ph.D., Professor and Principal Scientist, Energy Research Institute (ERIAN), Nanyang Technological University

Dr. Yazami was the inventor in 1980 of the graphite anode used in over 30 billion lithium-ion batteries produced worldwide. He was the winner of the Draper Prize in 2014 (Nobel Prize in Engineering) and is a member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology (Morocco). He was nominated for the Global Energy Prize (Russia, 2014) and the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2013-2015). Other awards include IEEE, NATO, JSPS, NASA and Marius Lavet Prize. He is currently Principal Scientist and Director of the energy storage programs at the Energy Research Institute of Nanyang Technological University (ERIAN, NTU, Singapore). His career began in Grenoble in late 70s when he started his Ph.D. project on graphite-based material for lithium rechargeable batteries at the Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG). In 1985 he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and rose to the Research Director (Professor) position. Dr. Yazami has over 125 worldwide patents and over 200 published scientific papers, books, and book chapters.


High Performance Battery Manufacturing

Kev Adjemian, Ph.D., Division Director, Clean Energy & Transportation, Idaho National Laboratory

Dr. Kev Adjemian is the Division Director for the Clean Energy & Transportation Division within the Energy and Environment Science and Technology (EEST) Directorate at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).   In this role, Dr. Adjemian directs the vision and leadership of an 85+ person R&D organization related to renewable energy, micro-grids, hydrogen & fuel cells, bioenergy, energy storage and advanced vehicles.  Dr. Adjemian originally joined INL in 2014 to lead the Energy Storage & Transportation Systems Department. Prior to joining INL, Dr. Adjemian worked for Nissan Motor Company from 2005-2014.  During this time, he held various R&D leadership positions in Japan (2005-2008), the US (2008-2013) and Canada (2013-2014)  in the fields of fuel cell and li-ion battery material research & development, electric drive technologies, advanced vehicle testing (EV - Leaf, HEV - Altima, Pathfinder, FCEV - Prototypes), as well as the development and implementation of hydrogen and electric (CHAdeMO) infrastructure.  Before joining Nissan, Dr. Adjemian launched and was the lead of Arkema Inc.’s fuel cell testing laboratory from 2002-2005. He holds a doctoral degree from Princeton University and a bachelor’s of science from New York University (NYU) both in the field of chemistry. In addition, Dr. Adjemian has completed executive management programs from Cornell and Vanderbilt Universities. Education: ​Ph.D., Chemistry - Princeton University and B.S., Chemistry - New York University

Jerry Barker, Ph.D., Founder and CTO, Faradion Limited

Dr. Barker is Founder and CTO at Faradion Limited – a UK-based start-up company developing a high energy density Na-ion battery technology. Previously Jerry was Chief Scientist at Valence Technology Inc. and has published extensively in the Li-ion battery field. He is the named inventor on more than 100 issued and over 60 pending US battery patents. Jerry is the inventor of a number of Na-ion and Li-ion active materials, including Na3V2(PO4)2F3, NaVPO4F, LiVPO4F, Li3V2(PO4)3,  LiFe(Mg)PO4 and the Carbothermal Reduction (CTR) manufacturing method. In 2012, Jerry was awarded the IBA Technology Award for his contributions to Li-ion battery materials.

Wayne Cai, Ph.D., Staff Researcher, General Motors

Dr. Wayne Cai is a Staff Researcher at General Motors Global R&D Center in Warren, Michigan, USA. His research area is advanced manufacturing technology, where mechanics, materials, and mathematics (statistics) are used to optimize manufacturing processes and systems for improved quality, reliability and reduced cost.  He is well-recognized for his innovation in automotive technologies, particularly li-ion battery design and manufacturing technologies, with over thirty US and international patents (or patent pending) and a number of GM trade-secrets inventions.  He authored over sixty peer-reviewed research papers, one book on li-ion battery manufacturing, and is a frequently invited speaker at a variety of industrial and academic conferences. Dr. Cai is currently Chair of SAE Hybrid Electric Vehicle Committee, Vice Chair of ASME Manufacturing Process Technical Committee, Associated Chair of North American Manufacturing Research Institute.  He also serves as an Associate Editor for ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering and SME Journal of Manufacturing Processes.  Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. degree from The University of Michigan.

Peter Cheng, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, HighPower International, China

Zhaobin Feng, Ph.D., Vice President, Lishen Research Institute, Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint Stock Co., Ltd., China

Zhaobin Feng received his Ph.D. degree from Shandong University of P. R. China in Dec. 2013. In Mar. 2014, he joined in Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co. Ltd. Currently, he is responsible for the research and development of cylindrical high power li-ion battery. At the same time, he is skillful in (1) equipments control and data process using LabVIEW and C++; (2) finite element method (FEM) simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics.

Yuan Gao, Ph.D., President and CEO, PULEAD, China

A world renowned inventor, Dr Yuan Gao has over 20 years of experience in the complete supply chain of lithium-ion battery industry, from lithium extraction to batteries. One of his inventions, the Ti/Mg technology, enables high voltage lithium-ion batteries and is being practiced today in a vast majority of lithium-ion batteries for small portable electronics such as smart phones and tablets.

Dr Yuan Gao joined Pulead Technology in May 2014 and has been serving as its President and CEO since Jan 2015. Previously Dr Gao served as a Corporate Vice President at Molycorp (USA), and a Global Marketing Director and Technology Manager, as well as other management positions at FMC Corporation (USA).

Dr Gao received his BSc from the University of Science and Technology of China, and his PhD in Physics from the University of British Columbia in Canada. He received his postdoc training from Professor Jeff Dahn’s lab at Simon Fraser University. He has also received Executive Education from The Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania in the USA.

Raf Goossens, Ph.D., CEO, Global Corporate Management, PEC

Raf Goossens is currently CEO and co-founder/owner of PECs, a company 32 years old. He is a Co-Founder/director in corporations worldwide, and is a business domain expert in Cash printing, Processing, Circulation, Cash Automation for CIT, ATM and commercial Banks, Advanced Cell Manufacturing, Cell/Battery testing for electro-mobility, Grid Storage, and aerospaced & defense applications. Prior to PECs, he graduated with a Master’s Cum Laude in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1980, and spent four years as a manufacturing Manager at ST Systems.

Thomas Greszler, Chemistry Division Manager, SAFT

Ankush Halbe, M.S., Technology Director, Renewable Energy, M+W Group

David He, Ph.D., EVE Energy Co., Ltd., China

Franz Kruger, Ph.D., Head of Business Unit, Treofan Group

Head of Business Unit of Treopore/Treofan Germany GmbH & Senior Advisor of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants GmbH

After graduating as an inorganic chemist, from the University of Stuttgart in 1976, he started his career at Varta Batterie AG, as project manager for lithium battery systems, directing their development and production in Germany and in Singapore. In the early 1980s he left to be director of marketing for Raychem in Menlo Park, California, and Munich, Germany. In 1986, Dr. Kruger rejoined VARTA as technical director of its R & D Center in Germany. In 2001 he joined Gaia Akkumulatorenwerke Nordhausen as Managing Director, and after its 2002 merger with Lithium Technology Corp. of Plymouth Meeting, USA, became President and Chief Executive Officer of LTC/GAIA. From 2006 until 2010, Dr. Kruger served as Senior Vice President for Engineering & Product Development at PowerGenix Inc. in San Diego, CA and Shenzhen/China. In 2011 he joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants GmbH and in 2015, he became the head of the business unit for battery separators at Treofan/Germany GmbH. Dr. Kruger has published over 40 technical papers and holds more than 80 patents and patent applications.

John Zhang, Ph.D., Senior Technology Executive Officer, Asahi Kensai Group, Japan

Henry Mao, Ph.D., CEO, Youlion Battery Ltd., China

Dr. Huanyu Mao, earned his Ph.D. in Electrochemistry from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. He joined Moli Energy in Vancouver in 1991 as a Research Scientist working in developing of Lithium Ion batteries. His patents of electrolyte additives in 1993 created Functional Electrolyte technology, that has been widely used in today’s Li-Ion battery industry.  As a co-founder, Dr. Mao Started Tianjin Lishen Batteries in China in 1997.  He jointed Shenzhen BAK battery in 2004 as CTO and COO.  He works in Suzhou Youlion Battery as Chairman and CEO since 2014.

Christophe Pillot, Ph.D., Battery Survey Manager, Avicenne Energy, France

Christophe has built up considerable expertise in the area of battery market. He joined AVICENNE 22 years ago and Spend 3 years in Japan making analysis on the Electronic, Mobile & Japanese battery market. Christophe gained large experience in marketing, strategy analysis, technology and financial studies for the battery and power management fields. He developed the Battery market analysis for AVICENNE which counts more than 200 customers worldwide. Christophe published several annual surveys like “The rechargeable battery market 2016-2025”. He is also the founder & chairman of Batteries congress in France since 1999. He is now Director of AVICENNE ENERGY.

Hang Shi, Ph.D., President, Hslion Consulting, China

Shailesh Upreti, Ph.D., President, C4v; Center of Excellence, SUNY Binghamton

A well respected Li-ion technology expert and inventor of multiple breakthrough technologies. An IIT Delhi graduate, Shailesh has worked closely with Professor Stan Whittingham in past and holds multiples US patents and their foreign equivalents in more than 30 countries. In addition to his technical degree he has second masters in international business management in combination with extensive experience as an entrepreneur. His 16 years of extensive experience includes bringing new products to market, business development, supply chain management, downstream processing and investigating the performance gaps. He is well integrated into the global battery industry serving on various advisory boards. Shailesh is particularly adept in defining corporate commercial objectives, technical support programs and achieving organizational goals in bringing new products to market.

Kurt Vandeputte, Vice President, Rechargeable Battery Materials Business Unit, Umicore

Bob Zollo, Solution Architect for Battery Testing, Automotive and Energy Solutions, Keysight Technologies

Bob has worked for HP, Agilent, and now Keysight Technologies for over 30 years. His marketing responsibilities include power supplies, electronic loads, data acquisition equipment, and test systems. Bob is now responsible for outlining Keysight’s battery testing solutions roadmap and has an Electrical Engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Advances in Automotive Power Applications

Alistair Davidson, Ph.D., Director, Products and Sustainability, International Lead Association

Tobias Glossman, Senior Engineer, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America

Tobias Glossmann develops advanced battery systems for more than 15 years. His research and engineering majorly contributed to the design of powertrains that are found in many Mercedes-Benz hybrid and hybrid electric vehicles. His scope of work included electronic systems, electro-mechanical systems, thermal management, high voltage systems, cell and battery pack simulation, bench marking, and battery controls.  He is now identifying promising battery technology in North-America and manages research collaborations to supports future targets of Mercedes-Benz products. He obtained his Engineering Diploma in Electronics/Mechatronics from the University of Applied Sciences in Esslingen, Germany in 2001 and is finalizing a Master of Science in Chemistry at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Current projects include the investigation of structure and dynamics of solid and liquid electrolytes and their interfaces using computational methods at Michigan State University and research on fluorinated ethers for lithium sulfur electrolytes with Argonne National Laboratory.

Denise Gray, CEO, LG Chem Power

Denise Gray is president of LG Chem Power Inc. (LGCPI), the North American subsidiary of lithium-ion battery maker, LG Chem (LGC), Korea. In this position, she has overall responsibility for the strategic direction, engineering and business development activities of the business. Prior to joining LGCPI, Gray served as vice president of Electrification Powertrain Engineering at AVL List, GmbH, where she was responsible for AVL’s Electrification Business Unit. She is well remembered and respected in the industry as the director of Global Battery Systems Engineering at General Motors, where her team successfully developed and launched the lithium-ion battery system used in the Chevrolet Volt, working closely with the LG Chem team. The Volt uses LG Chem battery cells produced at the company’s plant in Holland, Michigan. Gray received her MS in Engineering Management of Technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University.

Dave Howell, Deputy Director, Vehicle Technologies Office, Energy Storage R&D, U.S. Department

Dave is the Deputy Director of the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U. S. Department of Energy.  The Office supports research, development, and deployment of efficient and sustainable highway transportation technologies that will improve fuel economy and enable America to use less petroleum. In addition, Dave is DOE’s Program Manager for the Hybrid and Electric Vehicles R&D and serves as DOE’s representative at the United States Advanced Battery Consortium Management Committee and on the Executive Committee of the VTO Battery500 Consortium, and to international organizations and inter-government forums involved in electric drive transportation. Prior to joining the Department, Dave was a member of the research staff of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force Materials Laboratory. Dave received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1985 from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Patrick Hurley, Ph.D., CTO, A123 Systems, LLC

Patrick Hurley began serving as the Chief Technology Officer of A123 Systems in August of 2014. Prior to joining A123, Dr. Hurley's experience included technology leadership roles at Air Products and Chemicals and Johnson Controls Inc. In his previous role at Air Products and Chemicals, Dr. Hurley managed research programs in alternative energy production along with integrated circuits. During his role as director (IV) of Global Core Engineering at Johnson Controls Inc., Dr. Hurley directed a multi-disciplinary team to implement new technologies, processes and products in the Electrochemical Energy Storage space on a global scale. Following the completion of his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at Purdue University, Dr. Hurley continued his studies in Solid State Physics as a Kavli Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Dr. Hurley has been awarded over $20M in U.S. Department of Energy grants and has served on numerous government panels for the advancement of science and engineering.

Michael Lord, Executive Engineer, Product Regulatory Affairs, Toyota Motors North America

Mike Lord is an Executive Engineer for Toyota Motor North America.  Mr. Lord is the Toyota North American lead for California regulatory and policy activities related to zero emission vehicles (ZEV) and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction.   He works closely with both sales and engineering on developing Toyota’s technology roll-out strategy and acts as the interface with California regulatory authorities on implementation, policy, infrastructure and incentive issues related to advanced powertrains, such as Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV). Mr. Lord has a B.A. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and studied Japanese language at Sophia University in Japan.

Didier Marginedes, Senior Vice President, Director, BlueSolutions® – Groupe BOLLORÉ

Didier Marginedes is graduated from « Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité » in 1978, he has a Master of Sciences from Berkeley University (USA) obtained in 1979 and an Executive MBA from INSEAD (1989). After a first experience within Aerospatiale, he joined Schlumberger (81-86) to lead the development of signal processing for logging tools. He then worked for Air Liquide (86-95) where he was in charge of the development of energy-related businesses and of strategic marketing. In 1995, he joined Bolloré as R&D Director where he managed the development strategy including competitive analysis and new products development. In 2001, Didier Marginedes added the function of General Manager of a new subsidiary of Bolloré group: Batscap whose objectives were the development and sales of energy storage products such as batteries and supercapacitors. These products were mainly dedicated to clean energy transportation markets such as Electric Vehicle (Bluecar), electric bus (Bluebus), hybrid vehicles and clean tram system with energy recovery. He has been in charge of Autolib technical developments and of the developments of solutions of Energy Storage optimization. He is currently vice chairman of BlueSolutions (listed company subsidiary of Bolloré Group) which gathers all the companies providing services in energy storage optimization in mobility and stationary markets.

Ted J. Miller, Manager, Energy Storage and Materials Strategy and Research, Ford Motor Company

Ted Miller is Ford Senior Manager of Energy Storage Strategy and Research.  His team is responsible for energy storage strategy, research and development for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles, supporting prototype and production vehicle development programs.  They are engaged in all aspects of energy storage design and use, from raw materials to end-of-life recycling.  His team also conducts collaborative research projects at universities worldwide, including the University of Michigan, where Ford sponsored development of the Battery Fabrication and Characterization Lab in 2015.  He is a member of the USABC Management Committee and an Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Fellow.

Cynthia Millsaps, President and CEO, Quality, Energy Assurance LLC

Cindy Millsaps is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Energy Assurance, LLC. Prior to establishing Energy Assurance, Cindy worked in global regulatory approvals, quality systems management, product safety and product qualification testing with emphasis on information technology equipment, power/energy and batteries. Beginning her career with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) she moved to Motorola where she was part of the start-up management team at Motorola Product Testing Services.   In 2011 she left and established Energy Assurance. Cindy uses her expertise and established industry relationships globally to provide cell and battery manufacturers with comprehensive battery testing as well as international compliance services. She works with her customers early in the process to define what to expect for testing and assists in planning to save time and money and avoid delays.
In addition to advising her clients, she serves on Underwriters Laboratories Standards Technical Panel for UL 1642 and UL 2054 where decisions are made that impact the future of the industry. She has presented at numerous industry conferences. 

Boris Monahov, Ph.D., Program Manager, Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) – a program of the International Lead Association (ILA)

Boris Monahov is Program Manager of the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) – the largest international research organization focused on lead-acid batteries. The ALABC is a program of the International Lead Association (ILA) based in London. The Consortium has currently 70 member companies in 20 countries. Boris is setting up and managing the three years R&D programs of ALABC – usually a group of 15 or more projects focused on basic and applied science studies of advanced lead-acid (lead-carbon) batteries for automotive and energy storage systems. Boris Monahov holds a master’s degree in physics from the University of Sofia, and a PhD degree in electrochemistry from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where he also had his post doc training and habilitation. His experience comprises 25 years of basic electrochemical research of lead-acid batteries (with the team of Prof. D. Pavlov as Associate Professor), followed by 6 years in the battery industry as Chief Electrochemist of Firefly Energy Inc., USA (development of lead-carbon foam batteries). Since 2010 he is Program manager of ALABC. He has published over 60 articles and 3 patents. Boris is an active members of the Electrochemical Society. In 2012 he was awarded by EPLS’s BEST magazine for outstanding technical contributions by an individual to the lead-acid battery industry. In 2014 he was awarded by the Gaston Plante medal of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for fundamental contributions to the lead-acid battery science and technology.

Benjamin Park, Ph.D., Founder & CTO, Enevate Corporation

Dr. Park founded Enevate (originally Carbon Micro Battery) in 2005 and, as CTO, leads the battery research and development efforts. He is an expert in surface and bulk chemistries, novel battery manufacturing techniques, battery materials screening and development, and battery chemistry. Ben has authored more than 25 technical journal and conference publications and holds a doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of California, Irvine, an master’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Seoul National University in Korea.

Odysseas Paschos, Ph.D., Research Battery Technology, BMW, Germany

Dr. Odysseas Paschos has studied Physics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. In 2008 he obtained his PhD on Materials Science from College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Albany and moved to Munich, Germany where he worked at the Technische Universität München (TUM) as a Post-Doctoral Associate in the Physics Department. During this period, he worked on several aspects of electrical conversion and storage including synthesis and electrochemical characterization of materials related to fuel cells and batteries. Since 2012 he is working at BMW in the group Research Battery Technology lead by Dr. Peter Lamp and is in charge of coordinating the cooperation projects of the group, which investigate potential candidates and technologies for future automotive cells.

Craig Rigby, Advanced Market & Technology Strategist, Johnson Controls Power Solutions

Craig Rigby joined Johnson Controls in 2007 and currently serves as the Advanced Market & Technology Strategist for Power Solutions. In this role, Rigby focuses on macro level drivers that shape the future of the automotive and energy storage market with the goal of delivering a technology strategy that aligns with our customers' long-term needs and objectives. Prior to his current role, Rigby served as the Vice President, Product Management and Strategy where he was globally responsible for product road-mapping, core product development, and optimizing the Original Equipment product line.  In addition, he served as the Vice President, Global Product Engineering where he led the design, development and execution for the full product line of automotive energy storage products.  Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Rigby worked at Ford Motor Company in a variety of engineering roles including vehicle integration, program management and as an Engineering Supervisor.  He had a leadership role in the launch of the Ford Escape Hybrid before leading the core battery development team. Rigby holds a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Mark Verbrugge, Ph.D., Director, Chemical and Materials Systems Laboratory, General Motors

Mark Verbrugge is the Director of GM’s Chemical and Materials Systems Laboratory, which maintains global research programs—enabled by the disciplines of chemistry, physics, and materials science—and targets the advanced development of structural subsystems, energy storage and conversion devices, and various technologies associated with fuels, lubricants, and emissions.  Mark is a Board Member of the United States Automotive Materials Partnership LLC and the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC. Mark has received a number of GM internal awards as well as external awards including the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award and the Energy Technology Award from the Electrochemical Society, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Council for Automotive Research.  Mark is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Steven J. Visco, Ph.D., CEO and CTO, PolyPlus Battery Company

Steven Visco is the Chief Executive Officer, CTO, and founder of PolyPlus Battery Company in Berkeley, California, as well as a Guest Scientist in the Materials Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Steven J. Visco currently holds 110 U.S. patents, more than 200 international patents and has authored over 70 journal articles, as well as books, monographs and other publications. Dr. Visco graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in 1977 and received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Brown University in 1982.  Dr. Visco then joined the staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a Principal Investigator in the Materials Sciences Division in 1984 where his research interests have included advanced batteries and fuel cells.  Steven Visco co-founded PolyPlus Battery Company in 1991.  In 2013 Dr. Visco was selected by the City of Berkeley for a “Visionary Award” for his work in next generation batteries. Steve also serves on the Technical Advisory the CIC Energigune Institute in Miñano, Spain and was awarded the 2011 International Battery Association Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Lithium-Air and Lithium-Water Batteries.”  PolyPlus Battery Company was selected by TIME magazine for its 50 Best Inventions of 2011 Issue, and was selected for a Gold Edison Award in 2012. In May 2015 Dr. Visco was elected a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

John Votoupal, Research Specialist, Caterpillar, Inc.

Power Applications for Consumer Electronics

Jeremy Carlson, Battery Technology Engineer, Lenovo

David Heacock, Formerly Senior Vice President & Manager, SVA, Texas Instruments (retired)

Gaurav Jain, Ph.D., Senior Research Manager, Medtronic Energy and Component Center

Gaurav Jain is the Senior Research Manager of battery technology at Medtronic. He is the inventor of several lithium and lithium ion battery technologies for life saving and life improvement device applications.  He also leads the battery center of excellence at Medtronic for sourcing, development and evaluation of batteries for applications spanning from implantable or in the body, to wearable or on-the-body and surgical or for-the-body.  He has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology and a PhD in Materials Science from Rutgers University, NJ.  He has over 20 filed patents and over 20 peer-reviewed publications

Taylor Kelly, Materials Science & Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston

Taylor Kelly received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Houston. Her research aims to better understand the mechano-electrochemical coupling of solid polymer electrolytes and the effect of strain on lithium ion battery performance.

Lisa King, Senior Engineering Manager, Battery Technology, Stanley Black & Decker

Ms. King leads the Battery Technology team at Stanley Black & Decker. Stanley Black & Decker is the #1 global consumer of power tool cells, with over $1.8B annual sales in the cordless products space. Her group is responsible for cell technology development, evaluation and qualification of all batteries used in branded professional and consumer-grade power tools, outdoor and home products. Lisa plays an instrumental role within Engineering to define battery technology for Next Generation Power Tools. Lisa has a BS Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland, with 25-years’ experience in cell design, manufacturing and testing, and has been with Stanley Black & Decker for 3 years.

Nikhil Koratkar, Ph.D., John A. Clark & Edward T. Crossan Endowed Chair Professor of
Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Professor in Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Koratkar is a winner of the NSF CAREER Award (2003), RPI Early Career Award (2005), the Electrochemical Society's SES Young Investigator Award (2009) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award (2015). In 2016, Koratkar was elected a Fellow of the ASME. He has published a book on graphene as an additive in composite materials and over 150 archival journal papers (> 10,000 Citations, H-Index: 54). Since 2010 he has also served as an editor of the Elsevier journal Carbon. Nikhil Koratkar's research has focused on the synthesis, characterization, and application of nanoscale material systems. This includes graphene, carbon nanotubes, transition metal dichalcogenides, phosphorene as well as metal and silicon nanostructures produced by a variety of techniques such as mechanical exfoliation, chemical vapor deposition, and oblique angle sputter and e-beam deposition. He is studying the fundamental mechanical, electrical, thermal, magnetic and optical properties of these one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) materials and developing a variety of composites, coating and device applications of these low dimensional materials.

Bryan McLaughlin, Sr. Battery Engineer, Advanced Technology Team, Fitbit

Bryan is a Sr. Battery Engineer at Fitbit in San Francisco, CA, specializing in battery system architecture, cell validation, and failure analysis. He was previously with Qnovo as an Applications and Hardware Engineer, working with fast-charging architectures for Li-Ion consumer batteries. Prior to that, he was a Field Applications Engineer for Texas Instruments, specializing in the Power, Analog, and Mixed-Signal portfolios. He holds a Bachelors’ Degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University.

Bruce Miller, Senior Engineer, Development, Battery Team, Dell

He has earned masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Business.

During the last 15 years at Dell, he has worked in the field of Lithium Ion Batteries as an Engineer, Technology Strategist and Sr. Product Safety Investigator.

Other Activities

• Past chairman of the PSMA (Power Sources Manufacturers Association),
• Member and subcommittee chair of IEEE1625
• CTIA 1625 committee member
• UL 1642 Internal Short Circuit Task Group Member
• UL 62133 Technical Harmonization Committee

Reza Montazami, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University

Prof. Reza Montazami is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University; and an Associate Scientist at the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, and his B.S. in condensed matter physics from Virginia Tech. His research interests include advanced functional polymers, mechanics of soft materials, transient materials, bioelectronics and ionic devices. He is the director of Iowa State University’s Advanced Materials Laboratory.

Brian Morin, President & COO, Dreamweaver International

Dr. Brian Morin is President and co-Founder of Dreamweaver International, a growth company using disruptive nanofiber technology in a versatile manufacturing process to improve rechargeable battery performance.  Dreamweaver’s patent pending membranes provide enhanced safety in lithium ion batteries at a reasonable cost.  Having secured a manufacturing partnership with Glatfelter (NYSE: GLT), a $2 billion paper manufacturer, Dreamweaver is in market launch in the Chinese EV market and also industrial applications including medical carts, power tools, e-bikes and backup power supplies. Future applications include portable electronics and hybrid and electric vehicles.  Brian was founder and CEO of Innegrity LLC, a high performance fiber company, from 2004 - 2010. The company’s first fiber, Innegra, is a structural fiber that delivers light weight and toughness to composite materials at a cost that is far lower than other alternatives.  During Brian’s tenure, this fiber was placed in over 60 applications ranging from World Champion Formula – 1 race cars to ballistic protection, and including the Head-Innegra tennis racquet used by World Champion Novak Djokovic, and Bauer hockey sticks. Brian previously spent nine years in the Research Division of Milliken & Company, where he served as a Team Leader for the Advanced Yarns Team, as Intellectual Property Champion, and as Safety Chairman.  Prior to working at Milliken, Brian received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in physics from The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. He received his B.S. degree in physics from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC and was a member of the fourth graduating class from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.  Brian has applied for nearly 200 US & international patents on subjects ranging from molecular magnetic materials to polymer additives to advanced fibers. Brian serves on the Technical Advisory Council of the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, whose mission is to mission is to enable a manufacturing-based revolution by transforming traditional fibers, yarns, and fabrics into highly sophisticated, integrated and networked devices and systems.  Brian served on the External Advisory Board for the Clemson University Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 2007 - 2012, and on the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Foundation Board from 2010 – 2016.  From 2005 – 2010, Brian served on the Steering Committee of the Next Best Practices group in Greenville.  Brian has been Vice President and Director of NAATBatt International from 2013 through the present.  He also volunteers as a Guardian ad Litem in Greenville, SC, representing the best interests of foster children in the court process. There have been several billion dollars in sales of products based on his inventions, and sees his strength as leading the commercialization of innovative technology.

Bill von Novak, Principal Engineer, Qualcomm

Kamal Shah, Director, Extended Battery Life Enabling Initiative, Intel Corporation

Kamal Shah is the Director of Platform Architecture Management in Intel’s Client Computing Group. He is also the chairman of an industry organization, Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group focused on realizing vision of all day and beyond of battery life of mobile PCs. He is routinely invited to speak at industry conferences on topics ranging from power delivery, power management, platform power measurement, and battery life extension. He holds MS in Computer Engineering from Univ. of Texas at Austin and is author of two granted patents.

Yuxing Wang, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate, Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Yuxing Wang is a Postdoctoral research associate at the Energy and Environment Directorate of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) located in Richland, Washington. He received his doctoral degree in Materials Science & Engineering at Michigan State University before joining PNNL. His doctoral studies focused on materials synthesis, characterization and modeling of solid state lithium ion conductors lithium garnet oxides. At PNNL, he is mainly responsible for the microbattery development for implantable applications. His research interest also includes development of solid state electrolyte materials and components for energy storage applications.

John Wozniak, President, Energy Storage and Power Consulting

Dr. Wozniak completed his undergraduate training at MIT and graduate work at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he stayed on as an Assistant Research Professor until 1995. For the past 20 years he has worked for Energizer Power Systems, Compaq/HP and Microsoft prior to forming his own consulting business in 2014. As the President of Energy Storage and Power Consulting, he works closely with key battery cell and pack manufacturers as well as Fortune 500 OEMs manufacturing everything from consumer electronics, EVs , ESS and battery backup systems. Dr. Wozniak’s focus has been on developing quality manufacturing practices and commercialization of promising battery technologies.

Emerging Energy Storage Applications

Gene Armstrong, MSEE, Director of Applications, Engineering, Paper Battery Company

Gene Armstrong has over 30 years of experience in executive management, product development and product design of Battery Management products at some of the world’s leading semiconductor companies including MAXIM, TI, and Benchmarq Microelectronics. His product development work resulted in EDN Product of the Year, ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS Product of the Year and AnalogZone Product of the Year award winning mixed-signal devices in the field of battery management. He received his BSEE/Cum Laude and MSEE from the University of California at Irvine.

Michael J. Aziz, Ph.D., Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Michael Aziz received a BS from Caltech in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard in 1983. He spent two years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Eugene P. Wigner Postdoctoral Fellow. He has been a member of the faculty at what is now the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences since he joined in 1986 and is now Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies. His recent research interests include novel materials and processes for energy technology and greenhouse gas mitigation. He is co-inventor of the organic aqueous flow battery and directs a multi-investigator research program on stationary electrical energy storage. He is the Faculty Coordinator for Harvard's University-Wide Graduate Consortium on Energy and Environment, for which he developed a quantitative course on Energy Technology for a group of students in diverse disciplines.

Nitin Choudhary, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Yeonwoong (Eric) Jung Research Group, NanoScience Technology Center, University of Central Florida

Dr. Nitin Choudhary is currently a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Yeonwoong (Eric) Jung at the University of Central Florida, USA. He received his doctoral degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. His current research focus is on the development of 2D layered materials (Graphene, MoS2, and WS2) for next generation electronics and energy applications. He has authored and co-authored 30 referred scientific publications, 2 book chapters and filed 2 U.S. patents.

Kevin Fok, Senior Project Manager, LG Chem Power, Inc., a subsidiary of LG Chem, Ltd.

Kevin Fok, Senior Project Manager, leads the LG Chem project management and execution in North America for electric grid energy storage systems. He is responsible for end-to-end project management, which includes onsite project execution, installation, commissioning, field deployment, and ongoing deployment support. He has over 20 years of sales, business development, marketing, engineering, and project management experience in renewable and alternative energy, including lithium-ion batteries, solar photovoltaics (PV), nickel-metal hydride batteries, fuel cells, and hydrogen storage. His customers have included the military, state governments, systems integrators, and utilities. Mr. Fok has presented at numerous conferences and moderated and served on several conference panels. Mr. Fok is a co-inventor of 13 U.S. patents. He has Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Master of Business Administration degrees, both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

H. Frank Gibbard, Ph.D., CEO, CTO & Co-Founder, WattJoule Corp.

Dr. Frank Gibbard is a seasoned executive in the field of electrochemical power systems. He has managed battery and fuel cell activities at levels of responsibility ranging from senior scientist to Vice President R&D and as the Chief Executive Officer of two publicly-owned NASDAQ companies -- H Power Corp, an early-stage PEM fuel cell company; and Altairnano, a lithium-ion battery company. Frank holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His technical experience includes directing and carrying out work on primary and rechargeable batteries, including the following: lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride, alkaline-manganese oxide; alkaline-zinc-air; high-rate and reserve lithium-thionyl chloride; lithium-sulfur dioxide; lead-acid; flowing-electrolyte redox; zinc bromine; high-temperature molten salt rechargeables; and thermal primaries. As CEO of H Power Corp., a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell company, Frank grew the company from 17 employees to more than 200 and led its IPO to raise more than $100 million in public equity capital. He has published and presented more than 100 technical papers in journals, conference proceedings, and battery handbooks.

Michael A. Hickner, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Corning Faculty Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

Mike Hickner is an Associate Professor and the Corning Faculty Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State University. Hickner’s work focuses on the relationships between chemical composition and materials performance in functional polymers to address needs in new energy and water purification applications – especially in regards to membrane performance. His research group has ongoing projects in polymer synthesis, fuel cells, batteries, water treatment membranes, and organic electronic materials. Hickner’s work has been recognized by Young Investigator Awards from ONR and ARO (2008), a 3M Non-tenured Faculty Grant (2009), the Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award (2013), and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama in 2009. He has co-authored eight U.S. and international patents and over 150 peer-reviewed publications with more than 12,000 citations.

Gaurav Jain, Ph.D., Senior Research Manager, Medtronic Energy and Component Center

Song Jin, Ph.D., Professor, Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor Song Jin received his BS in Chemistry from Peking University in 1997, Ph.D. in 2002 from Cornell University under the direction of Prof. Francis J. DiSalvo and carried out his postdoctoral research with Prof. Charles M. Lieber at Harvard University. Dr. Jin is interested in the chemistry and physics of nanoscale and solid-state materials and their applications for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion, thermoelectric energy conversion, energy storage, nanospintronics, and biotechnology. Dr. Jin has authored or co-authored 140 publications and 5 patents. He has been recognized with a NSF CAREER Award, a Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Award and as one of world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35 (TR35 Award) by the MIT Technology Review Magazine, the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the ACS ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Fellowship, and Research Corporation SciaLog Award for Solar Energy Conversion, and recently the ACS Inorganic Nanoscience Award.

Michael Meinert, Ph.D., Senior Expert, Energy Storage Systems & Head, Centre of Expertise Energy Storage Systems, Mobility Division, Technology and Innovation, Siemens AG

Michael Meinert (45) graduated in electrical engineering, Electrical Railway Systems, from Dresden University of Technology, Germany in 1995 and received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany in 2007. His employment experience included the Siemens AG, Erlangen since 1995 in the field of Rolling Stock and Railway Power Supply as well as the Darmstadt University of Technology from 2001 to 2004. He is named a Senior Expert Energy Storage Systems and is currently the Head of the Centre of Expertise Energy Storage System (CoE ESS) at Siemens Mobility. His special experiences include railway systems, high-temperature superconductivity and innovative energy systems.

Reza Montazami, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University

Prof. Reza Montazami has been an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University since 2011 and an affiliate scientist at Ames National Laboratory since 2012. He received his Ph.D. and MS in Materials Science and Engineering, and his BS in condensed matter physics from Virginia Tech. His research interests include advanced functional polymers, mechanics of soft materials, transient materials, bioelectronics and ionic devices. He is the director of Iowa State University’s Advanced Materials Laboratory.

Khosrow (Nema) Nematollahi, Ph.D., Chairman and CTO, Renewable Energy, Advanced Renewable Power LLC

Dr. Nematollahi is Chairman of CAE-net.com Inc. and Advanced Renewable Power LLC (ARP). He has been conducting research in thermal management system development for electric vehicle batteries and Grid Energy Storage (GES) systems in collaboration with EnerDel, Inc. and ARP for the last six years. Dr. Nematollahi received his Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics/Civil in May 1983 from Purdue University School of Engineering in West Lafayette, Indiana. He has been Associate Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University School of Engineering, Indianapolis since 1997. After graduating from Purdue University, he was a principal engineer in the nuclear power industry for about two years with Impell and Surgent & Lundy Corporations in Chicago, IL. He founded Modern Computer Aided Engineering Inc. (MCAE) in 1984 to develop advanced finite element analysis system. As chairman and CEO of MCAE, he raised close to $6,800,000 from research grants, venture capitals, and software commercial sales. He has also developed the reality view visualization system for The immersive Global University (TiGU). Dr. Nematollahi was also the principal for global professional services at Silicon graphics from 1999 to 2002. Dr. Nematollahi has been conducting research in the area of advanced composites armor technologies since 2005 and was awarded several research grants ($790,000) from Department of Defense (DoD). He has been awarded three U.S. patents for advanced armors. He was awarded the Outstanding Faculty at Purdue University School of Engineering and Technology, 2014.

Eugene S. Smotkin, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University

Hirohito Teraoka, General Manager, Business Development Department, Ni-MH Division, FDK Corporation

Mr. Teraoka brings 25 years of experience working with and developing electrochemical storage systems to the International Battery Seminar. He has honed his skills working for a range of top-tier organizations such as Toshiba battery, Sanyo Energy TWICELL and FDK CORPORATION on the development of alkaline primary, lithium primary and nickel metal hydride technologies. He has become a well-known representative of Ni-MH technology in Japan and has presented internationally a number of times, most recently in September 2016 at the Batteries Event in Nice. He is the convener, project leader and key Japanese delegate of IEC SC21A Working Group 2, which oversees the regulations related to Ni-Cd cells and batteries (IEC 61951-1) and Ni-MH cells and batteries (IEC 61951-2) for portable applications.

Matthias Vetter, Ph.D., Head, Electrical Energy Storage, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE

Dr. Vetter is an Electrical Engineer with 18 years of experience at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. His Ph.D. thesis was in the field of modeling and development of control strategies for fuel cell systems at University of Karlsruhe. Until 2005, he was project manager in the field of modeling, simulation and development of control strategies for distributed power generation systems at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. Until 2010, he was head of the group for “off-grid power supply” at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. Since 2011, Dr. Vetter has been head of department in “electrical energy storage” at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. His work topics among others: autonomous systems and mini-grids, decentralized grid connected PV battery systems, development of battery systems for stationary and automotive applications. He also works on development and optimization of battery management systems, energy management systems as well as supervisory control strategies. Dr. Vetter is the contact person for battery systems at Fraunhofer Battery Alliance.

Yuxing Wang, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate, Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Yuxing Wang is a postdoctoral research associate at the Energy and Environment Directorate of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) located in Richland, Washington. He received his doctoral degree in Materials Science & Engineering at Michigan State University before joining PNNL. His doctoral studies focused on materials synthesis, characterization and modeling of solid-state lithium-ion conductors lithium garnet oxides. At PNNL, he is mainly responsible for the microbattery development for implantable applications. His research interest also includes development of solid-state electrolyte materials and components for energy storage applications.

Colin Wessells, Ph.D., CEO, Alveo Energy

Colin Wessells is presently the CEO of Alveo Energy, a battery technology startup company based in the San Francisco bay area. Dr. Wessells is responsible for raising over $18 million in investments, committed investments, and federal awards in Alveo from leading venture capital firms and ARPA-E. Dr. Wessells has also led Alveo’s technical development since cofounding the venture in 2012 as a spin-out of his doctorate in materials science at Stanford.

Battery Safety

Chang-Jun Bae, Senior Researcher, Korea Institute of Material Science

Dr. Bae is a senior scientist in Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), which is a government funded research institute. Prior to joining to KIMS, Dr. Bae was a research scientist at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), located in Silicon Valley, and MIT, developing new ways of manipulating the properties of ceramic active materials. His previous research achievements of additive manufacturing (AM) and Li-ion battery were featured on the several media: Economist, MIT Technology Review, and Ceramic Tech Today. He is a co-author on 18 journal publications and a co-inventor on 11 issues and pending patent application for Additive Manufacturing and Li-ion battery.

Brian Barnett, Ph.D., Vice President, CAMX Power

Dr. Brian Barnett leads marketing and customer relations. In addition to being a noted technology manager, he is a globally recognized scientist and expert in advanced battery materials and battery safety. He has developed and maintained a vast network of contacts and collaborators in industry, government and universities around the globe dating back to the earliest development of lithium-ion technology. Dr. Barnett chaired, for thirteen years, the International Conference on Power Requirements in Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications known as Power (or Portable Power). These conferences, unique at the time, brought together all the key stakeholders during a period of immense change in portable products and their power sources; manufacturers of batteries and battery materials, suppliers to the battery industry as well as the major OEMs in mobile computing products and wireless communications devices from North America, Asia and Europe. Working with a core group of industry experts, Dr. Barnett had responsibility for the technical program for this conference, which encompassed the technical and market aspects of these dynamic fast-growing product categories. He is poised to take CAM-7 and related offers of CAMX Power to the key players in this network. At TIAX, Dr. Barnett, as Vice President, had a variety of important roles in technology and market development including large program management, group management, interface with many government agencies as well as being a significant contributor to the development of CAM-7, safety programs and other battery materials. Before joining TIAX in 2002, Dr. Barnett was a Vice President and Managing Director at Arthur D. Little, working in many critical and significant roles involving the launch and execution of major laboratory-based technology development programs in energy such as proprietary polymer electrolyte battery technology, novel carbon anode materials, and fuel cells. He had management responsibility for the firm’s Chemistry and Applied Materials business He also served on Arthur D. Little’s Board of Directors. He received his BSc in Chemistry from McGill University and his Ph.D. in Electrochemistry from the University of Ottawa. He is widely published and has delivered invited presentations at many conferences.

Rohit Bhagat, Associate Professor, University of Warwick

Rohit joined the University of Warwick in 2008 from Imperial College London. His research expertise lies within improving the manufacturability of devices and technology through a combination of electrochemical techniques and materials/manufacturing knowledge. At WMG, Rohit has collaborated extensively with industry and has worked with SMEs to address electrochemical based challenges to working with large automotive companies to characterise battery safety. Rohit has a background that includes materials/metallurgy/manufacturing and the use of electrochemical techniques (such as voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy) to study the electrochemical production of titanium alloys, from titanium oxide, via the FFC Cambridge Process (a molten salt process operating at 900C). This work included manufacturing apparatus and developing new test methodologies to assess the electrochemical reduction processes taking place. This background is ideally suited to other molten salt electrolysis and form the basis of the Groups research in molten salt metal recovery and molten salt batteries. His background in electrochemical techniques is also suited to investigate the manufacturability of electrochemical devices. For the past five years he has worked in this area with particular focus around WMG's Energy Innovation Centre (£13m pounds - InnovateUK) and is developing research projects in this area.

Michael Greiner, President, Hazard Control Technologies

Dave Howell, Deputy Director, Vehicle Technologies Office, Energy Storage R&D, U.S. Department of Energy

Dave is the Deputy Director of the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U. S. Department of Energy.  The Office supports research, development, and deployment of efficient and sustainable highway transportation technologies that will improve fuel economy and enable America to use less petroleum. In addition, Dave is DOE’s Program Manager for the Hybrid and Electric Vehicles R&D and serves as DOE’s representative at the United States Advanced Battery Consortium Management Committee and on the Executive Committee of the VTO Battery500 Consortium, and to international organizations and inter-government forums involved in electric drive transportation. Prior to joining the Department, Dave was a member of the research staff of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force Materials Laboratory. Dave received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1985 from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Steve Hwang, Ph.D., Chemist, Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety, US Department of Transportation

Thomas (TJ) Leech, III, CHMM, FedEx Express

T J is Manager of the Dangerous Goods Hotline for FedEx Express, Corporate Safety in Memphis, Tennessee. He has a broad background in the environmental, health, safety, and dangerous goods transportation. He has been at FedEx for 10 years. He began his career working in Air Pollution Control in Memphis. He has worked in medical waste disposal, chemical manufacturing, orthopedic manufacturing, and consulting. He is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager and holds an Associate Degree in Chemical Engineering Technology from Southwest Tennessee Community College, a Bachelor of Environmental Technology from Florida International University in Miami, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Memphis.

Ted J. Miller, Manager, Energy Storage and Materials Strategy and Research, Ford Motor Company

Ted Miller is Ford’s Senior Manager of Energy Storage and Materials Strategy and Research.  His team is responsible for energy storage strategy, research, development and implementation for all Ford hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles.  Mr. Miller’s team supports global prototype and production vehicle development programs.  They are involved in every aspect of energy storage design and use from raw materials to end-of-life recycling.  His team also sponsors collaborative research programs at the University of Michigan, MIT, Stanford, and a number of other major universities worldwide.  Mr. Miller is Chairman of the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) Management Committee.  He holds a number of energy storage technology patents and is the author of many published papers in the field.

Cynthia Millsaps, President and CEO, Quality, Energy Assurance LLC

Cindy Millsaps is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Energy Assurance, LLC. Prior to establishing Energy Assurance, Cindy worked in global regulatory approvals, quality systems management, product safety and product qualification testing with emphasis on information technology equipment, power/energy and batteries. Beginning her career with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) she moved to Motorola where she was part of the start-up management team at Motorola Product Testing Services.   In 2011 she left and established Energy Assurance. Cindy uses her expertise and established industry relationships globally to provide cell and battery manufacturers with comprehensive battery testing as well as international compliance services. She works with her customers early in the process to define what to expect for testing and assists in planning to save time and money and avoid delays.
In addition to advising her clients, she serves on Underwriters Laboratories Standards Technical Panel for UL 1642 and UL 2054 where decisions are made that impact the future of the industry. She has presented at numerous industry conferences. 

Michael Naguib, Research Staff, Materials Science and Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Michael Naguib is a Wigner Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He obtained his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA. He received his MS and BS degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt. His research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of functional nanomaterials for energy storage. He has published 45 papers in international journals in addition to presenting in many international conferences and professional societies meetings. He has received many international awards, such as MRS Gold Graduate Student Award, Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) Award, and Ross Coffin Purdy Award.

Ahmad Pesaran, Ph.D., Group Manager, Energy Storage Group, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Shriram Santhanagopalan, Ph.D., Engineer, Transportation and Hydrogen Systems Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Lu Zhang, Scientist, Energy Storage Research, Argonne National Laboratory

Battery Management Systems

Craig Arnold, Ph.D., Director, Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University

Girish Chowdhary, Ph.D., Director, Distributed Autonomous Systems Lab, Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Girish Chowdhary is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the director of the Distributed Autonomous Systems laboratory at UIUC. He holds a PhD (2010) from Georgia Institute of Technology in Aerospace Engineering. He was a postdoc at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for about two years (2011-2013). He was an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department (2013-2016). Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he also worked with the German Aerospace Center's (DLR's) Institute of Flight Systems for around three years (2003-2006). Girish's ongoing research interest is in theoretical insights and practical algorithms for adaptive autonomy, with a particular application focus on field-robotics and Unmanned Aerial Systems. He has authored over 90 peer reviewed publications in adaptive control, decision making, vision-based flight, machine learning and other areas in autonomy and AI. On the practical side, Girish has led the development and flight-testing of over 10 research UAS platform. UAS autonomy algorithms based on Girish’s work have been designed and incorporated on six UASs, including by independent international institutions. Girish is a Primary Investigator on NSF, AFOSR, NASA, and DOE grants. He is the winner of the Air Force Young Investigator Award, and the Aerospace Guidance and Controls Systems Committee Dave Ward Memorial award.

Eric Darcy, Ph.D., Battery Technical Discipline Lead, Propulsion and Power Division, NASA-JSC/EP5

Eric C. Darcy, Ph.D, has spent his 30-year career at NASA in the areas of battery design, verification, and safety assessments for the rigors of manned spacecraft applications. As Battery Technical Discipline Lead at NASA-JSC, his main objective has been the development of safe, while high performing, battery systems with a deep focus on understanding, preventing, and mitigating latent defects that could lead to catastrophic cell internal short circuits. With National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) colleagues, he is co-inventor of the patented On-demand Internal Short Circuit Device that has provided significant design insights into the cell response during thermal runaway (TR), enabled valid battery TR propagation assessment, and received the prestigious R&D100 award in 2016. He has led NASA’s design and test efforts for providing a path for developing safe, high performing Li-ion spacecraft batteries using small commercial cells. He was selected for a NASA Ambassador Fellowship in 2010 to spent 9 months with battery colleagues at NREL in Golden, CO. He was selected for a Navy Panel to guide the review and revision of their safety verification processes for large Li-ion batteries after their Advanced Seal Delivery Vehicle battery incidents in 2008. He’s been invited to give talks at numerous battery conferences, has over 30 publications and 2 patents, and has participated in audits of numerous Li-ion cell production line audits across Asia and North America.

Tom Hoeger, Senior Power Systems Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center

Thomas Hoeger, Senior Electrical Power Systems Engineer; Contractor, Advanced Power and Energy Branch, U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Tom received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University in 1988. The first 25 years of Tom's career were spent in the space industry working at Lockheed Martin Astro Space in East Windsor, NJ, designing high-reliability analog and power electronics for satellites. In late 1995 Tom moved on to Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, VA, where he spent the next 18 years. Tom has supported over 20 space programs ranging from 150 Watt LEO science satellites to 10 kW GEO communication satellites, and the Mars Observer interplanetary mission. As the Lead Power System Engineer for Orbital's Cygnus vehicle, Tom led development of Orbital's first 2-fault tolerant, man-rated power system which included the design of the vehicle's three 6.7kWH lithium-ion batteries. Since June of 2014, Tom has worked as a contractor for the Advanced Power and Energy Branch (APEB) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Carderock Division. As part of APEB's Battery Safety Group, Tom's primary function is to verify batteries meet the Navy's stringent safety requirements. This is accomplished primarily through a combination of detailed review of battery design, destructive and non-destructive testing.

Jay Lee, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor, University of Cincinnati

Dr. Jay Lee is Ohio Eminent Scholar, L.W. Scott Alter Chair Professor, and Distinguished Univ. Professor at the Univ. of Cincinnati and is founding director of National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Intelligent Maintenance Systems (www.imscenter.net) which is a multi-campus NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center which consists of the Univ. of Cincinnati (lead institution), the Univ. of Michigan, Missouri Univ. of S&T, and the Univ. of Texas-Austin. Since its inception in 2001, the Center has been supported by over 85 global companies including P&G, GE Aviation, Eaton, National Instruments, Boeing, Goodyear, Toyota, Caterpillar, Siemens, Chevron, Honeywell, Parker Hannifin, Spirit AeroSystems, Ingersoll Rand, Intel, Applied Materials, Automated Precision Inc (API), Bosch Rexroth (Germany), Alstom (France), Omron (Japan), Nissan (Japan), Tekniker (Spain), FMTC (Belgium), Kistler (Switzerland), Samsung (Korea), Shanghai Electric (China), Baosteel (China), etc. He is one of the pioneers in the field of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) and has mentored his students and won 1st prize of PHM Data Challenges five times since 2008. He also mentored his students and developed a spin-off company Predictronics through NSF ICorps Award in 2012. He serves as Committee member for White House Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) American Challenge Program in Dec. 3013, a member of Technical Executive committee (TEC) of Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation (DMDI) in Feb. 2014, as well as a member of Leadership Council of MForesight which is a NSF/NIST Newly established manufacturing think tank in Sept. 2015. He also serves as honorary professor and visiting professor for a number of institutions including Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ., Cranfield Univ. in UK, Lulea Univ. of Technology in Sweden, etc. He also serves as advisor to a number of global organizations, including a member of the Manufacturing Executive Leadership Board of U.S., Scientific Advisory Board of Flanders' MECHATRONICS Technology Centre (FMTC) in Leuven, Belgium, International S&T Committee for Alstom, France, Scientific Committee of SIMTech of Singapore, etc. In addition, he serves as editors and associate editor for a number of journals including IEEE Transaction on Industrial Informatics, Int. Journal on Prognostics & Health Management (IJPHM), Int. Journal on Service Operations and Informatics, etc.. Previously, he served as Director for Product Development and Manufacturing at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), E. Hartford, CT as well as Program Directors for a number of programs at NSF during 1991-1998, including the Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) Program, the Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRCs) Program, and the Div. of Design, Manufacture, and Industrial Innovation. He also served as an advisory member for a number of institutions including, Johns Hopkins Univ., Cambridge Univ.,etc. He has authored/co-authored numerous highly influential articles and technical papers in the areas of Prognostics and Health Management, E-Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and Cyber Physical Systems in Manufacturing, etc. He has over 20 patents and trademarks. He is a frequently invited speaker and has delivered over 300 invited speeches worldwide including over 200 keynote and plenary speeches at major international conferences. He is a Fellow of ASME, SME, as well as a founding fellow of International Society of Engineering Asset Management. He has received a number of awards including the most recent Prognostics Innovation Award at NI Week by National Instruments in 2012 and NSF Alex Schwarzkopf Technological Innovation Prize and MFPT (Machinery Failure Prevention Technology Society) Jack Frarey Award in 2014. In 1994, he received President Clinton’s Appreciation Letter for his participation and contribution to the United States Partnership for Next Generation Vehicle (PNGV) Program. He is also a honorary advisor to the Heifer International-a charity organization working to end hunger and poverty around the world by providing livestock and training to struggling communities.

Naoki Matsumura, Ph.D., Senior Technologist, Intel

Naoki Matsumura is a battery technologist at Intel Corporation, responsible for technical assessment of new battery technologies, charging algorithm and battery sourcing for consumer electronics, drones and Internet of Things. Naoki earned his MS in Energy Science from Kyoto University and holds 5 patents.

Christopher Michelbacher, Ph.D., Battery Performance & Research Design Scientist, Energy Storage & Transportation Systems, Idaho National Laboratory

Mr. Christopher Michelbacher joined Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in early 2009 as part of the Energy Storage & Transportation Systems (ES & TS) Department and is currently on a Management & Operating (M&O) assignment within the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) headquarters in Washington, DC.  His roles include development and oversight of programs in the following research areas: 1) vehicle centric cybersecurity (connected & autonomous vehicles, Smart EVSE), 2) grid modernization (Smart EVSE, Vehicle-to-Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Grid), 3) energy storage systems testing and research (Lithium-ion advanced transportation battery systems research and benchmarking), 4) electric vehicle fast charging (350kW).  Prior to his assignment at DOE Mr. Michelbacher supported the ES &TS Department in their state-of-the-art Battery Test Center (BTC) as a research engineer.  Later he progressed to vehicle systems research followed by a return to battery research as a BTC Principal Investigator (PI).  As PI, Christopher was responsible for all operations, analysis, and reporting of energy storage device testing within the BTC. 

Mohammad Rezvani, Battery Systems Engineer, Workhorse Group, Inc.

Anna Stefanopoulou, Ph.D., Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan

Anna G. Stefanopoulou is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Department and the Director of the Automotive Research Center a university-based U.S. Army Center of Excellence in Modeling and Simulation of Ground Vehicles. She obtained her Diploma (1991, Nat. Tech. Univ. of Athens, Greece) in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and her Ph.D. (1996, University of Michigan) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She was an assistant professor (1998-2000) at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a technical specialist (1996-1997) at Ford Motor Company. She has co-authored a book, 20 US patents, 5 best paper awards and more than 250 publications on estimation and control of internal combustion engines and electrochemical processes such as fuel cells and batteries.

She is an ASME Fellow (08) and an IEEE Fellow (09), an elected member of the Executive Committee of the ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Division (DSCD) and the Board of Governors (BoG) of the IEEE Control Systems Society, the Founding Chair of the ASME DSCD Energy Systems Technical Committee and a member of a U.S. National Research Council committee on the 2025 US. Light Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards.

Chao-Yang Wang, Ph.D., Professor & William E. Diefenderfer Chair, Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

Chao-Yang Wang is William E. Diefenderfer Endowed Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering, and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. He has been the founding director of Electrochemical Engine Center (ECEC) since 1997 and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) since 2007. Dr. Wang holds more than 50 patents (U.S. and international) and has published two books, “Modeling and Diagnostics of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells” by Springer and “Battery Systems Engineering” by Wiley. He has authored over 200 journal papers with H-index of 71 according to Web of Science and is one of most highly cited engineers in the world in both 2014 and 2015 according to Thomson Reuters. Dr. Wang’s research interests center on the transport, materials, manufacturing, and modeling aspects of batteries and fuel cells.

Sheldon Williamson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Ontario

To keep pace with Canada’s ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, the automotive industry aims to provide affordable and reliable electric vehicles as an optimized, sustainable transportation solution for personal and mass transit. Yet, the driving range of an electric vehicle is still curbed by the charge of its battery pack. At best, Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles currently provide a 300- to 350-kilometre driving range on a single charge, and cost three to four times more than gas-powered vehicles. Dr. Sheldon S. Williamson, Canada Research Chair in Electric Energy Storage Systems for Transportation Electrification and Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science is leading groundbreaking research to extend the overall lifecycle of Lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles using novel power electronic converter management systems. He is also focused on creating wireless and plugged fast-charging infrastructures for convenient use. Notably, he is spearheading development of the world’s first method for charging electric vehicles using solar power and he aims to establish a first-of-its-kind Advanced Storage Systems and Electric Transportation (ASSET) Laboratory, featuring a solar charging station, at UOIT. Motivated to shift Canada’s transportation system from fossil fuels to renewables, his research also explores electrifying mass transit using ultracapacitators. Since joining UOIT in July 2014, Dr. Williamson has been the Founder and Director of the Smart Transportation Electrification and Energy Research (STEER) group. Previously, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University in Montreal. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering with high distinction from the University of Mumbai in India in 1999. In 2002, he earned his Master of Science and his Doctorate in 2006, both in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Automotive Power Electronics and Motor Drives from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Noted author and co-author of over 150 papers, and several books and book chapters on electric transportation and energy storage systems, Dr. Williamson has garnered several Best Paper Awards. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.

David L. Wood, III, Ph.D., Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Team Lead & Fuel Cell Technologies Program Manager, Energy & Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

David Wood is a Senior Staff Scientist, Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Team Lead, Fuel Cell Technologies Program Manager, and UT Bredesen Center Faculty Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researching novel electrode architectures, advanced processing methods, manufacturing science, and materials characterization for lithium ion batteries and low-temperature fuel cells, and has been employed there since 2009. He is a well-known energy conversion and storage researcher with an industrial and academic career that began in 1995. From 1997 to 2002, he was employed by General Motors Corporation and SGL Carbon Group, excelling at applied R&D related to automotive and stationary PEFC technology. Later work (2003-2009) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Cabot Corporation focused on elucidation of key chemical degradation mechanisms, development of accelerated testing methods, and component development.  Dr. Wood received his BS in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1994, his MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Electrochemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2007.

Yinjiao (Laura) Xing, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), University of Maryland

Dr. Yinjiao (Laura) Xing is a research scientist at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), University of Maryland. Her research focuses on battery system monitoring, modeling and failure analysis for the purpose of improvement of battery system safety and reliability. She has published numerous articles on these subjects, including a research paper which won the 2015 Applied Energy Award for being the most cited. She serves as a member of the SAE International Lithium Battery Packaging Committee as well as the guest editor of the special issue on battery energy storage and management systems in IEEE Access. Before joining CALCE, she worked as a research engineer at Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, China, as a researcher at City University of Hong Kong and in the operations management leadership program in GE Aviation, China.

Rachid Yazami, Ph.D., Professor and Principal Scientist, Energy Research Institute (ERIAN), Nanyang Technological University

Dr. Yazami was the inventor in 1980 of the graphite anode used in over 30 billion lithium-ion batteries produced worldwide. He was the winner of the Draper Prize in 2014 (Nobel Prize in Engineering) and is a member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology (Morocco). He was nominated for the Global Energy Prize (Russia, 2014) and the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2013-2015). Other awards include IEEE, NATO, JSPS, NASA and Marius Lavet Prize. He is currently Principal Scientist and Director of the energy storage programs at the Energy Research Institute of the (ERIAN, NTU, Singapore). His career began in Grenoble in late 70s when he started his Ph.D. project on graphite-based material for lithium rechargeable batteries at the Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG). In 1985 he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and rose to the Research Director (Professor) position. Dr. Yazami has over 125 worldwide patents and over 200 published scientific papers, books, and book chapters.