George Crabtree Tribute: Special Session Honoring George Crabtree (1944–2023)

Monday, November 27
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Sheraton, 2nd Floor, Constitution B

George Crabtree, widely recognized and admired as a brilliant, passionate materials scientist and champion of superconducting materials and better batteries, passed away on January 23, 2023, at the age of 78. He was a renowned materials scientist and director of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory. He had many connections with the Materials Research Society (MRS) and was a critical player in developing its increasingly important role in energy materials through his position on the editorial board of the MRS Energy & Sustainability journal and as an active advisor for MRS Bulletin.

This session will celebrate his accomplishments and legacy in materials, especially in energy-related areas.

Following the Tribute, everyone is invited to stay for the Materials Needs for Energy Sustainability by 2050: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow session, which begins at 5:45 pm.

Private Reception

A joint reception for the George Crabtree Tribute and 2050 Panel participants will follow Food and beverages will be served. Please reply if you plan to attend the reception.

Monday, November 27
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Sheraton, 2nd Floor, Constitution B

Remembering George Crabtree

Chair

Y. Shirley Meng, The University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory

Y. Shirley Meng is a professor of molecular engineering at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. She also serves as the chief scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) Argonne National Laboratory.

Her work pioneers in discovering and designing better materials for energy storage by a unique combination of first-principles computation guided materials discovery and design, and advanced characterization with electron/neutron/photon sources. Meng is the principal investigator of the research group - Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC). She has received several prestigious awards, including the Faraday Medal of Royal Chemistry Society (2020), International Battery Association Battery IBA Research Award (2019), Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Finalist (2018), C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016), Science Award Electrochemistry by BASF and Volkswagen (2014) and NSF CAREER Award (2011). Meng is the elected fellow of Electrochemical Society (FECS) and elected fellow of Materials Research Society (FMRS). She serves as the editor-in-chief for Materials Research Society MRS Energy & Sustainability Journal.

Meng received her PhD in Advanced Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005, and her bachelor’s degree with first-class honor from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2000. She worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and became a research scientist at MIT from 2005-2007. Meng was the Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) before joining PME at the University of Chicago.

Scientific Talks

Sossina M. Haile, Northwestern University

Sossina M. Haile is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, a position she assumed in 2015 after serving 18 years on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. Haile’s research broadly encompasses materials, especially oxides, for sustainable electrochemical energy technologies. Her work in fuel cell science and technology has pushed the field to new insights and record performance metrics. In parallel, she has created new avenues for harnessing sunlight to meet rising energy demands and demonstrated viable solutions to the challenge of hydrogen delivery.

Amongst her many awards, in 2008 Haile received an American Competitiveness and Innovation (ACI) Fellowship from the U.S. National Science Foundation in recognition of “her timely and transformative research in the energy field and her dedication to inclusive mentoring, education and outreach across many levels.” In 2010 she was the recipient of the Chemical Pioneer Award (American Institute of Chemists), in 2012 the International Ceramics Prize (World Academy of Ceramics), and in 2020 the Turnbull Lectureship (Materials Research Society). She is a fellow of the Materials Research Society, the American Ceramics Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the African Academy of Sciences, and the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, and serves on the editorial boards of Joule and MRS Energy and Sustainability.

Linda F. Nazar, University of Waterloo

Linda Faye Nazar FRS FRSC OC is the Senior Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials and Distinguished University Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She has been inducted into the Royal Society (London) in recognition of her work. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a Justus Liebig Visiting Professor in Germany. She has co-authored > 280 publications garnering more than 75,000 citations (H index 126; Google Scholar).

She is on the Highly Cited Research List (WoS) each year from 2014 - 2022. She has been a member of the Directorate of the USA Department of Energy’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research since 2013. Prof. Nazar currently sits on the Advisory Councils for the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, and the Israel National Research Centre for Electrochemical Propulsion. She is the Director of the Waterloo Institute of Technology’s International Scientific Advisory Board.

Kristin Persson, University of California, Berkeley

Kristin Persson directs the Materials Project which is a multi-institution, multi-national effort to compute the properties of all inorganic materials and provide the data and associated analysis algorithms to researchers free of charge. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to drastically reduce the time needed to invent new materials by focusing costly and time-consuming experiments on compounds that show the most promise computationally. Within the Persson group, we use our expertise in materials informatics and the high-throughput infrastructure of the Materials Project to design novel materials for energy applications and to guide synthesis and characterization through data-driven methodologies.

Examples of previous work includes data-driven reaction networks of interfacial reactions, rational design of novel electrolytes, tailoring circularity of plastics, discovery of novel cathodes, magnetocalorics, photocatalysts and piezoelectrics.

Venkat Srinivasan, Argonne National Laboratory

Venkat Srinivasan is the director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) and deputy director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR). He is a former staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research interest is in developing next-generation batteries for use in vehicle and grid applications, among other things. Dr. Srinivasan and his research group develop continuum-based models for battery materials and combine them with experimental characterization to help design new materials, electrodes, and devices.

Dr. Srinivasan has previously served as the technical manager of the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) Program, as the acting director of the BATT program, as department head of the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources (ESDR) department at LBNL, and the interim director of the ESDR Division at LBNL. Dr. Srinivasan joined the scientific staff at LBNL in 2003 after postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Pennsylvania State University. He received his PhD from the University of South Carolina in 2000.

Tributes

Paul K. Kearns, Argonne National Laboratory

Paul K. Kearns has served as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory since 2017. Argonne is a growing multidisciplinary science and engineering research center with a $1.2 billion diversified research portfolio and more than 3,300 employees, 8,000 facility users, and 800 visiting researchers. Kearns has set the laboratory’s strategic vision to deliver pivotal discoveries, pioneering leadership, and powerful scientific tools and facilities. He has strengthened sponsor relationships and fostered a welcoming and inclusive culture valuing diversity, innovation and collaboration, and laboratory impact.

A biologist and accomplished steward of diverse scientific resources, Kearns has managed complex research and development enterprises for over 30 years, enabling them to achieve ambitious goals in energy, environment, and national security. As Argonne laboratory director, Kearns oversees multiple projects critical to Argonne’s mission of accelerating science and technology to drive U.S. prosperity and security. Upgrading the Advanced Photon Source and launching the first exascale computer in the U.S. at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility are critical to maintain U.S. leadership in science and technology. Argonne’s leadership of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research reflects the laboratory’s long history of battery science expertise and collaboration.

Martin L. Green, Retired, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Martin (Marty) L. Green received a BS degree in metallurgical engineering and MS degree in physical metallurgy from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the NYU Tandon School Engineering). In 1977 he received his PhD degree in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Green spent most of his career as a research scientist at Bell Laboratories (1970-1974 and 1978-2003) in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he led research projects in the application of novel materials and processing for integrated circuit scaling and production. Between 2001 and 2003, he was a guest researcher at IMEC (Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center) in Leuven, Belgium.

In 2003 Green started work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, as leader of the Materials for Energy and Sustainable Development Group His group conducts research and develops and disseminates measurement science, data, standards, and technology pertaining to materials for energy and sustainable development applications, in partnership with U.S. industry, government agencies, and industry stakeholders. His group’s most current interest is in the application of artificial intelligence to the field of materials science.

Green served as President of MRS in 2001 and is an MRS Fellow. He has authored or co-authored over 225 papers and 10 books and has been granted 16 patents.

Green has 52 years of experience in the field of Materials Science, during which he has been involved in fundamental research, research management, product development, manufacturing, and public outreach. He passionately believes that materials are “technology enablers” and therefore a sine qua non for our modern world. As an alumnus, he hopes to engage with Tandon/Poly alumni, as well as to be a mentor to current students and to give back to the Tandon/Poly community by sharing his experiences and perspectives. His goal is to enable young people to have joyful, meaningful, and fulfilling careers in science and technology. Further, because Marty had a wonderful experience at Poly, he wants to make sure that NYU Tandon continues to excel.

This program was organized by the MRS Focus on Sustainability subcommittee. Funding provided by the National Science Foundation and Argonne National Laboratory.