Dr. William Chueh, Stanford University, CA, USA, has been awarded the Science Award Electrochemistry 2016 at Humboldt Carré in Berlin, Germany. BASF and Volkswagen honor with this international award outstanding research results. The award has been given every year since 2012 and is targeted at scientists working in academic research. Total prize money is €100,000, with first place receiving €50,000.

In 2016, on the occasion of the fifth ceremony of the science award, a special prize for applied research worth €15,000 was awarded to recognize applied research. Dr. Martin Ebner, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, was honored for his excellent research in the area of fast charging of lithium-ion batteries.

Dr. William C. Chueh received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA, in materials science in 2010. Currently, he is assistant professor at the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and Center Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy, both at Stanford University.

Among other honors, Chueh has received the Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prize in Energy, Caltech in 2011, and was awarded Top 35 innovators under the age of 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2012.

Chueh develops next-generation electrochemical energy storage materials. By visualizing electrochemical reactions as they take place on length scales ranging from tens of microns down to sub-nanometer, he has delivered new insights into the design of functional materials with novel compositions and structures.

Martin Ebner received his Ph.D. in 2014 under the supervision of Vanessa Wood at ETH. In 2015, he received funding of the ETH Pioneer Fellowship program and founded the start-up Battrion AG, Luzern, Switzerland. Currently, Ebner is a postdoctoral researcher at the ETH Zurich and CEO and President of Battrion.

Among other honors, he received the Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize and the ETH Medal in recognition of his PhD Thesis in 2014 and the Hans Eggenberger Award in 2016.

His research focuses on new methods to increase the charging rates of lithium-ion batteries with novel electrode processing methods while reducing production costs. Using synchrotron x-ray tomography, he studied the impact of electrode microstructure on fast-charging performance, battery life, and material degradation. He developed methods to control electrode microstructure to increase cell-level energy density and charging rates and to drive down manufacturing costs.

^{Left to right: Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn (Volkswagen), Dr. William Chueh (Science Award Winner),
Dr. Martin Ebner, (Special Award Winner), Dr. Martin Brudermüller (CTO BASF).}

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• Science Award Electrochemistry

• BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany
• Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg, Germany

 

Previous Awards

• Science Award Electrochemistry for Bryan McCloskey,
  ChemViews Mag. 2015.
• Science Award Electrochemistry 2014 for Vanessa Wood
  Energy Storage of the Future,
  Anja Feldmann, BASF, in cooperation with ChemistryViews.org
  BASF’s Creator Space 2015.
• Science Award Electrochemistry 2013 for Karl Mayrhofer
• Science Award Electrochemistry for N. Yabuuchi,
  ChemViews Mag. 2012.

 

Selected Articles by Chueh

• Ceria as a Thermochemical Reaction Medium for Selectively Generating Syngas or Methane from H₂O and CO₂,
  W. C. Chueh, S, M. Haile,
  ChemSusChem 2009, 2, 735–73.
  DOI: 10.1002/cssc.200900138
• High-Flux Solar-Driven Thermochemical Dissociation of CO₂ and H₂O Using Nonstoichiometric Ceria,
  W. C. Chueh, C. Falter, M. Abbott, D. Scipio, P. Furler, S. M. Haile,
  Sience 2010, 330, 1797–1801.
  DOI: 10.1126/science.1197834
• Semiconductor/Mixed Ion & Electron Conductor Heterojunction for Elevated-Temperature Water Splitting,
  X. Ye, J. Melas-Kyriazi, Z. A. Feng, N. A. Melosh, W. C. Chueh,
  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013, 15, 15459–15469.
  DOI: 10.1039/c3cp52536h
• Determination of the Surface Structure of CeO₂(111) by Low-Energy Electron Diffraction,
  D. Siegel, W. C. Chueh, F. Gabaly, K. McCarty, J. de la Figurera, M. Blanco-Rey,
  J. Chem. Phys. 2013, 139, 114703.
  DOI: 10.1063/1.4820826

 

Selected Articles by Ebner

• Tortuosity Anisotropy in Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes,
  Martin Ebner, Ding-Wen Chung, R. Edwin García, Vanessa Wood,
  Adv. Energy Mater. 2013.
  DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201301278
• Influence of Conversion Material Morphology on Electrochemistry Studied with Operando X-Ray Tomography and Diffraction,
  Claire Villevieille, Martin Ebner, Juan Luis Gómez-Cámer, Federica Marone, Petr Novák, Vanessa Wood,
  Adv. Mater. 2015.
  10.1002/adma.201403792
• Communication—Technique for Visualization and Quantification of Lithium-Ion Battery Separator Microstructure,
  Marie Francine Lagadec, Martin Ebner, Raphael Zahn, Vanessa Wood,
  J. Electrochem. Soc. 2016, 163 (6), A992-A994.