Meng hong ying biography

Y. Shirley Meng, Ph.D.

Dr. Y. Shirley Meng is a Professor of Molecular Engineering at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at University of Chicago and is an Adjunct Professor at University of California San Diego since 2021. She serves as the Chief Scientist for Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Meng’s research focuses primarily on energy storage materials and systems – including rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and trucks, power sources for Internet of Things (IOTs), as well as grid-scale storage for deep renewable energy penetration.  Meng has led the development of liquefied gas electrolytes, allowing for a new class of battery that can operate at -112°F, the technology led to the startup South 8 Technologies.

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. Dr. Meng is the principal investigator of the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC). She 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). Dr. Meng is the elected Fellow of Electrochemical Society (FECS), elected Fellow of Materials Research Society (FMRS) and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Materials Research Society MRS Energy & Sustainability Journal.      

Dr. Meng received her Ph.D. 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. Soon after her tenure at University of California San Diego (UCSD), she founded the Sustainable Power & Energy Center in 2015 and became the inaugural director of the Institute for Materials Discovery and Design in 2019. Dr. Meng was Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies at UCSD (2016-2021) before joining PME at University of Chicago. Dr. Meng’s current CV may be downloaded here.

Dr. Meng serves as the scientific advisory board member for several startups and public companies, including Advano (https://www.advano.io), Ensurge Micropower (https://ensurge.com), SES(https://ses.ai) and Shell (https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation.html)

Michael Tesis

Email: mtesis@ucsd.edu

Dr. Minghao Zhang

Email: miz016@eng.ucsd.edu

Minghao received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC San Diego in 2017. He earned his B.S. in Physics from Nankai University (2009), and M.S. in Materials Physics and Chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012). He worked as a postdoc research fellow since 2018 and became a project scientist at UC San Diego in 2020. Minghao received the Battery Division Postdoctoral Associate Research Award of The Electrochemical Society (ECS) in 2019. His research interests include energy storage system diagnosis through advanced multidimensional characterizations, functional materials design based on ab initio calculations, and synthesis/modification method development for next generation lithium-ion and post lithium-ion batteries with high energy density. Minghao is the author and co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 1 book chapter and 5 patents. Dr. Zhang’s current CV may be downloaded here.

Dr. Mehdi Chouchane

Email: mchouchane at uchicago.edu

Mehdi received his Ph.D. in France from the University of Picardy Jules Verne (UPJV), at the Laboratory of Reactivity and Chemistry of Solids (LRCS) in 2021 under the supervision of Pr. Alejandro A. Franco. His work focused on the 3-D modeling of lithium-ion batteries at the electrode scale, to predict and optimize their performance. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Chicago at the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) under Prof. Shirley Meng’s supervision. His current research interest is to combine experimental and modeling approaches to improve positive electrodes or to optimize all-solid-state batteries.

Dr. Xiaowei Wang

Email: xiw128 at eng.ucsd.edu

Xiaowei received his M.Sc from Department of Chemistry, Fudan University in 2016 and Ph.D. from NUS Graduate School under the Integrative Sciences and Engineering programme, National University of Singapore in 2021. His M.Sc work spanned Li-ion cathode materials, Na-ion anode materials and Zn-ion electrode materials and devices. His Ph.D. work focuses on the synthesis and characterizations of organic redox-active materials for batteries. He was a research fellow at IMRE, A-STAR, where he was involved with the research on secondary life of Li-ion battery and the interfacial protection of NASICON-structured solid-state electrolytes.  His current research interest is on the development in high-energy Li-S batteries.

Dr. Jin An Sam Oh

Email: jao002 at eng.ucsd.edu

Sam received his Ph.D. from National University of Singapore’s NUS Graduate School under the Integrative Sciences and Engineering programme in 2021. His Ph.D. work focused on NASICON structured solid-state electrolyte and the electrode/electrolyte interfaces. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) under Prof. Shirley Meng’s supervision. His current research interest is on the development in the all-solid-state batteries.

Dr. Kun Qian

Email: k4qian at ucsd.edu

Kun received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from Tsinghua University, China (2019). Then, he worked on the research of electrolyte structure with Small-angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in LESC and he is dedicated to designing and diagnosing the bulk and interface of energy storage materials in electrochemical systems by integrating electrochemical analysis and in-situ/operando characterizations based on X-ray, Raman, Neutron etc.

Dr. Long Hoang Bao Nguyen

Email: longuyen at eng.ucsd.edu

Long received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of Science – Vietnam National University in 2014. He then joined the Erasmus Mundus M.E.S.C. (Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion) Master program, where he had his formation at Aix-Marseille University (France), Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), University of Picardie Jules-Verne (France), and University of Cambridge (UK). He graduated from University of Bordeaux with a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 2019. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC), working on the development of Na-ion batteries using conventional liquid electrolytes or solid-state electrolytes.

Dr. Bing Han

Email: b3han at ucsd.edu 

Bing obtained his B.S. and Master in School of Physics & Telecommunication Engineering from South China Normal University in 2014 and 2017 respectively. He then graduated from the Peking University with a Ph.D. degree in Mechanics in 2021. His Ph.D. work was focused on analyzing alkali battery by Cryo-TEM/Cryo-STEM-EELS. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at LESC under Prof. Shirley Meng’s supervision. His current research is focused on analyzing the interface of Li-Metal-Based All-Solid-State Batteries through Cryo-TEM/Cryo-STEM-EELS.

Dr. Guomin Zhu

Email: g9zhu at ucsd.edu  

Personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/guominzhu/home?authuser=0

Guomin obtained his master’s degree at Zhejiang University working on developing in situ Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) tools to understand material structure-property relationships. He then graduated from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. degree in Material Science and Engineering in 2020. His Ph.D. work was focused on understanding the crystallization mechanism of mesocrystal. His current interest is to pursue fundamental insights on battery science through the lens of TEM and crystallization.

Dr. Jihyun Jang

Email : jijang at eng.ucsd.edu

Jihyun obtained his B.S and Ph.D. in the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. His previous study focused on the transition metal oxide anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. He worked at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Samsung SDI to develop lithium-ion batteries applicable to high-energy density electric vehicles. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Diego in the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion, working on the development of all-solid-state batteries under Prof. Shirley Meng’s supervision.

Dr. Wurigumula Bao

Email : wubao at eng.ucsd.edu

Wurigumula received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2013 and 2019 respectively. Her research interests focus on advanced anode materials. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) under Prof. Ying Shirley Meng at UC San Diego. Her current research includes improvements and advanced characterizations of the silicon-based anode materials.

Dr. Weikang Li

email: wel001 at eng.ucsd.edu

Weikang obtained his B.S in 2013 and Ph.D. in 2019 both from Beijing Institute of Technology. His previous research supervised by Prof. Feng Wu focused on the interface issues of cathode materials. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) at UC San Diego under Prof. Shirley Meng’s supervision. His current research is focused on the synthesis and advanced characterization of the interface for Cobalt-free cathode materials.

Dr. Darren H. S. Tan

email: dht020 at eng.ucsd.edu

Darren obtained his Ph.D. from UC San Diego’s NanoEngineering department, where he led the all solid-state battery research team.  He is currently focused on commercializing all solid-state batteries for stationary storage applications. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer for UNIGRID Battery, a spin-out startup company from LESC.

Dr. Erik Wu

email: eaw003 at eng.ucsd.edu

Erik obtained his Ph.D. from UC San Diego’s Chemical Engineering department, where his research focused on the synthesis, characterization, and testing of battery materials for longer-lasting sodium all-solid-state batteries. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer for UNIGRID Battery, a spin-out startup company from LESC.

Shuang Bai

email: s1bai at eng.ucsd.edu

Shuang graduated with a master’s degree majoring in Medicinal Chemistry from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University-Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS joint program in 2016. She has been working at LESC as the research associate for two years before she becomes a PhD student. Her previous research interest includes using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to elucidate the materials structural change during electrochemical reactions. She is currently working on the modification and characterization of Si anode materials. 

Bhargav Bhamwala

email: bbhamwala@ucsd.edu

Bhargav received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Pandit Deendayal Energy University in 2015 and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston in 2018. His masters’ research was focused on solid polymer electrolyte-based lithium-ion batteries with Graphite/Silicon anode. Then, he started working at Nextech Batteries as a cell research engineer. His current research is focused on interface study with advanced characterization techniques in conversion chemistry-based energy storage devices.

Ashley Cronk

email: acronk at eng.ucsd.edu

Ashley received her B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. Her previous research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory focused on the development of a novel electrochemical flow cell with gas diffusion and membrane electrode architecture for CO2 reduction. Her research interests include electrochemical and nanocomposite materials for energy storage.

Diyi Cheng

email: d3cheng at eng.ucsd.edu

Diyi received his B.S. in Material Physics from Jilin University in China. His previous research focused on nickel–cobalt layered double hydroxide nanosheets for high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials. Currently he is working on lithium thin film battery and solid-state electrolyte.

Yu-Ting Chen

email: yuc054 at eng.ucsd.edu

Yu-Ting received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from National Taiwan University. He previously worked on oxide-based solid-state electrolytes and lithium metal anodes. He is now researching all-solid-state lithium and sodium ion battery.

Grayson Deysher

gdeysher at eng.ucsd.edu

Grayson received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University. His previous research involved the synthesis of new two-dimensional MXenes as well as their layered carbide precursors to be used for applications including energy storage. He is currently working on using MXenes as electrode materials for metal ion batteries; particularly sodium.

So-Yeon Ham

Email : soham at eng.ucsd.edu

So–Yeon received her B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. Her previous research focused on high growth per cycle in atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ and perovskite solar cells. She is currently working on Li metal and Si anodes of all-solid-state batteries.

Xueying Li Quinn

email: xul101 at eng.ucsd.edu

Xueying received her B.A. in chemistry from Cornell University. During her Ph.D. studies at University of California San Diego, she earned her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with research focused on synchrotron characterization on perovskite solar cell materials. Her current research focuses on the investigation of stability of zinc batteries.

Yixuan Li

email: yil889 at eng.ucsd.edu

Yixuan received her B.S. in New Energy Science and Engineering from Nanjing University in China. Her previous research focused on developing cathode materials for Li-ion batteries and Li-air batteries. Her current research involves synthesis and characterization of advanced electrode materials for Li-ion batteries.

Bingyu Lu

email: blu at eng.ucsd.edu

Bingyu received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of California, San Diego. His previous research focused on developing Li-Air Batteries and the application of Cryo-TEM on the characterization of Lithium Metal Batteries. He is currently working on the synthesis and characterization of protective layers for lithium metal.

Saurabh Parab

email: saparab at ucsd.edu

Saurabh received his Dual Degree (B.Tech + M.Tech) in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science with a specialization in Ceramics and Composites from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2020. His previous research was focused on the synthesis and characterization of layered oxide cathode material for sodium-ion batteries. Currently, he is working on exploring the oxygen activity in the high energy cathode materials.

Na-ri Park

Na Ri received her B.S. and M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Sogang University in Korea. Her previous research focused on developing Cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. Her current research involves synthesis and characterization of New generation Cathode for Li-ion batteries.

Ganesh Raghavendran

email: graghave at eng.ucsd.edu

Ganesh graduated from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli with B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering.  He previously worked at GAIL India Ltd., as Senior Process Engineer for two years. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at UCSD. His current research includes microscopy image processing and Co-free batteries.

Phillip Ridley

email: pridley at eng.ucsd.edu

Phil received his B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology in Chemical Engineering in 2018 and M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from Drexel University in 2020. His previous research focused on conversion of two-dimensional MXenes into layered oxides for energy storage applications. He is currently interested in the development of solid-state battery systems for EVs. 

Baharak Sayahpour

email: bsayahpo at eng.ucsd.edu

Baharak received her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Tehran and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research background is in the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials for Lithium-air batteries. She is interested in the development of novel electrocatalytic systems for future energy storage technologies.

Ryosuke Shimizu

email: ryshimiz at eng.ucsd.edu

Ryosuke received B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Tohoku University in Japan. His previous focus was a surface structure of ionic liquids by SFG spectroscopy. Then, he had worked at Honda R&D as an engineer for a few years. Currently, he is working on thin-film battery.

Bhagath Sreenarayanan

email: bs at eng.ucsd.edu

Bhagath received his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. His previous research focused on synthesizing and characterizing Chitosan-Nanoclay/Nano Silica hybrid composites. His current project is to develop high-capacity anode materials including Silicon and Silicon Oxide and also to understand their failure mechanisms.

Jing Wang

Email: wangj467 at uchicago.edu

Jing received her B.S. in Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University in China. Her previous research focused on developing cathode materials for Zinc-ion batteries and additive manufacturing of Li-ion batteries. She is currently working on the synthesis, modification and characterization of single crystalline cathode materials for Li-ion batteries under the co-supervision of Dr. Shirley Meng and Dr. Khalil Amine (ANL). 

Weiliang Yao

email: w1yao at eng.ucsd.edu

Weiliang received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology(IIT) and M.S. in University of California San Diego (UCSD). His previous focus includes synthesis of WC-Co alloys and LiAlO2-Al2O3-coating on LiCoO2 cathode. His current research focuses on interface and mechanism studies of high voltage cathode materials.

Yijie Yin

email:  yyijie at eng.ucsd.edu

Yijie Yin graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in history. He was also selected to participate in the Excellent Engineer Training Program in SJTU. He was previously involved in synthesizing supramolecular hydrogels and study their applications on cell adhesion and growth in tissue engineering. His current project is to develop a new advanced electrolyte for next generation Lithium Metal battery.

Haozhe Zhang

email: zhhaozhe at uchicago.edu

Haozhe received his B.S. in Materials Chemistry and M.S. in Physical Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University. His previous research focused on material design and mechanism investigation for aqueous energy storage systems like Zn-ion batteries, aqueous alkaline batteries, and supercapacitors. He is currently working on the materials design for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction and metal-air batteries under the co-supervision of Dr. Shirley Meng and Dr. Di-Jia Liu (ANL). 

Naohiro Tojima

Naohiro is a fourth year Nanoengineering student with an ECE focus, He is working with Weiliang on the cathode team.

Benjamin Lam

Benjamin is a fourth year Chemical Engineering student. He is currently working with Ganesh on projects involving liquefied gas electrolyte and computational material science.

Marta Vicencio

Marta is a fourth year NanoEngineering student with a Materials Science focus. She is working with Bhagath on the development of high-capacity silicon anodes for Li-ion batteries.

Bryant Dang

Bryant is a fourth year Nanoengineering Student at UCSD. He will be working with Xueying (Sherry) on the degradation mechanism of the Zn-AgO battery. He will be helping through battery fabrication and data analysis. 

George Duong

George is a second year Chemistry student and he is working with Sherry on making zinc-silver oxide batteries for high-power devices.

Sharon Lin (Wan-Hsuan)

Sharon is a second-year NanoEngineering undergraduate student. She is working with the solid-state team on developing Na solid-state batteries.

Meghan Shen

Meghan is a third year Nanoengineering student with a Materials Science focus. She is working with Yixuan in advanced electrode material synthesis and high energy battery development.

Ashley Shen

Ashley is a third year Nanoengineering student. She is working with Hayley on the synthesis and characterization of cathode materials for sodium ion batteries.

Randall Burger

Randall is a third year Nanoengineering student with focus in Materials Engineering. He is assisting Ryo in making thin film batteries and electrode materials.

Chris Redquest

Alex Liu

Alex is a second year Materials Physics undergraduate student. He is working with Matt on liquefied gas electrolytes.

Briege Keenan

Briege Keenan is a third year Chemical Engineering undergraduate student. She is currently working with Min-cheol on Perovskite Solar Cells

 Hyukin Moon

Hyukin is a first-year Chemical Engineering undergraduate student and is working with Jonathan on solid-state batteries for sustainable grid storage and stretchable zinc batteries for wearable electronics.

Hedi (Jerry) Yang

Jerry is a first-year Nanoengineering undergraduate student and is working with Darren in the solid-state batteries subgroup.

Kazuhiro Yoshino

Kazu is a visitor scholar from Nissan Motor Co.,Ltd (Japan). He is currently working on the development of all-solid-state batteries at UCSD.

Dr. Suk Jun Kim

Jan 2020 – Jan 2021

Jun is a professor at Korea University of Technology and Education.

Jessica Tortoledo

June 2019 – August 2019

Jessica is an undergraduate student in Nanotechnology at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is working with Baharak on synthesis and characterization of catalytic cathode nanomaterials for Lithium-Oxygen batteries.

Evelyn Hernández Vargas

June 2019 – August 2019

Evelyn is an undergraduate student in Renewable Energy Engineering at the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla. She is working with Baharak on synthesis and characterization of catalytic cathode nanomaterials for Lithium-Oxygen batteries.

Sahana Kumar

July 2019 – August 2019

Sahana is a first-year Biomedical Engineering student at Johns Hopkins University, and is currently helping with Jonathan’s research on zinc-silver batteries.

George Duong

July 2019 – August 2019

George is currently a high school student at San Gabriel High School in Los Angeles. He is working with Jonathan on a pressure study and the effects it has on stretchable zinc batteries. 

Nov 2018-Mar 2019

Xiaowei is currently a Ph. D. student in NUS Graduate School for Integrative Science and Engineering from National University of Singapore. 

Axel Melchor Gaona-Carranza

Markus Wolff

Dec 2017-May 2018

Markus is currently pursuing his M.Sc. at TUM.

Dr. Bao Qiu

Jun 2017-Oct 2017

Bao is currently working at Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering (NIMTE), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Akira Yoda

Oct 2015-Sept 2017

Akira Yoda is currently working at Denka Co., Ltd (Japan).

Marcella Günther

Jan 2017-Mar 2017

Marcella is currently a student at the University of Wuerzburg.

Dr. Akihiro Orita

Nov 2014-Dec 2016

Akihiro Orita is currently working at Hitachi Chemical Company (Japan).

Hitoshi Shobukawa

Sep 2014-Aug 2016

Hitoshi Shobukawa is currently working at Asahi-Kasei Corporation of Japan.

Hui Li

Oct 2015-Oct 2016

Hui is currently a graduate student at the Beijing Insititute of Technology.

Changrong Zhu

Nov 2015-Jun 2016

Changrong  is currently a scientific editor in Cell Press.

Cécile CHENOT

Mar 2016-Jun 2016

Cecile is currently a graduate student at the University of Namur, Belgium

Dr. Katsunori Takahara

Sept 2014-Dec 2015

Katsunori Takahara is curretly a project scientist at Sony Corporation. 

Dr. Xin He

June-Sep 2015

Xin He is currently a graduate student in Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology (MEET) battery research center (Germany). 

Kuniko Chihara

Mar-Apr 2015

Kuniko chihara is currently a graduate student in Department of Applied Science for Electronics and Materials in Kyushu University of Japan.

Jingwen Yu

Oct-Dec 2014

Jingwen is currently an undergraduate student in Department of Materials Science and Engineering of Fudan University, China.

Ying-Ching Lu

Jul-Sep 2014

Ying-Ching is currently a graduate student in Department of Applied Science for Electronics and Materials in Kyushu University of Japan.

Alexandre Delmas

Jun-Aug 2014

Alexandre is currently an undergraduate student in the Science and Technology College of Bordeaux University.

 Yuniba Yagües

Jun-Aug 2014

Yuniba is currently a high school student in Colegio La Paz (Tijuana, Baja California).

Lisset Vega

Jun-Aug 2014

Lisset is currently a high school student in Colegio La Paz (Tijuana, Baja California).

Qianyu Zhang

Oct 2013-Feb 2014

Qianyu is a PhD student in Department of Environmental and Engineering of Fudan University, China.

Uriel Pérez

Mar-Dec 2013

Uriel is an Engineering Student on the Centro de Graduados e Investigación en Química in Tijuana, Mexico .

Hao Liu

Feb-Jul 2013
Hao Liu is a PhD student in department of Physics in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Jie Zhao

Jan-Mar 2013
Dr. Jie Zhao is currently interning at NTT facilities.

 Dr. Elena M. Arroyo

Visiting Professor Summer 2011
Dr. Arroyo is Professor at Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Spain.