2025 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit

Symposium EN02-Next-Generation Technologies for Clean Energy and Materials Sustainability

The transition towards a sustainable future necessitates groundbreaking advancements in energy systems and materials sustainability. However, current clean energy and sustainability technologies are critically inadequate, failing to meet the imminent and growing demands for energy resources and environmental protection. This shortfall stems from a fundamental lack of understanding of key materials and essential mechanisms in next-generation technologies. Developing efficient and affordable solutions for next-generation clean energy and sustainability technologies requires fundamental research to address challenges at the intersection of electrochemical devices, interfacial phenomena, and advanced characterization techniques across various scales, from atomic to macroscale, and from picoseconds to years. To achieve real impact through efficient, scalable, and economically feasible applications, a concerted effort is needed from diverse research fields, including materials science, electrochemistry, mechanical engineering, chemical processing, machine learning, and more. This symposium aims to serve as a platform for researchers, scientists, engineers, and industry professionals to discuss the latest advances and innovations in synthesis, design, fabrication, characterization, and evaluation for applications in clean energy and materials sustainability. Focusing on areas such as solid-state batteries, solar cells, direct air/ocean capture, in-situ mining, AI-assisted materials design, materials recovery from waste streams, fusion, green hydrogen, geothermal energy, smart grids, and beyond, this symposium seeks to explore emerging technologies and novel approaches that promise to shape the future of energy and chemical production, consumption, materials utilization, and environmental remediation. We particularly encourage showcasing ongoing innovations and pioneering technologies with the potential to drive transformative change towards a more sustainable future.

Topics will include:

Novel material synthesis and processing for applications of clean energy and materials sustainability
Electrochemical interface and 3D structure design and optimization for renewable energy storage systems
Operando visualization and characterization from atomic scale to system level
Multi-physics coupling in energy storage/conversion devices
ML/AI driven material genome for the goal of clean energy and sustainability
Experimental, theoretical, and computational research of renewable energy conversion, storage, and distribution, levels ranging from device to grid
Sustainable mining, materials repair & recycling & recovery, recycle-oriented product packaging
Multiscale modeling, waste management, life cycle analysis
Carbon emission reduction and reutilization in clean energy and materials sustainability

Invited Speakers:

Plamen Atanassov (University of California, Irvine, USA)
Jason Baxter (Drexel University, USA)
Martin Bazant (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
Ilias Belharouak (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
Maria Chan (Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
Lei Cheng (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
Raphaële Clément (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Greeshma Gadikota (Cornell University, USA)
Edward Hartley Sargent (Northwestern University, USA)
Alan Hatton (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
Michael Hope (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)
Matthew Kanan (Stanford University, USA)
Dominik Kubicki (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom)
Yiyang Li (University of Michigan, USA)
Annalise Maughan (Colorado School of Mines, USA)
Michael McGehee (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
Jennifer Rupp (Technische Universität München, Germany)
Caroline Schauer (Drexel University, USA)
Sridhar Seetharaman (Arizona State University, USA)
Rita Silbernagel (Sublime Systems, USA)
Adrienne Stiff-Roberts (Duke University, USA)
Ping-Chun Tsai (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
Irune Villaluenga (POLYMAT–Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering, Spain)
Yan Wang (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Douglas Wicks (Department of Energy, ARPA-E,USA)