Doron Aurbach ( he, דורון אורבך; born 3 September 1952) is an Israeli

electrochemist Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...

materials Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geolog ...

and

surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...

scientist.

Biography

Doron AurbachDoron Aurbach, Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University
/ref> was born in 1952 in Israel to parents who survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

and fought the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, grew up in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and man ...

and studied in Blich High School. He served in Sayeret Golani reconnaissance unit, a.k.a. 631st Reconnaissance Battalion, (an Israeli special force unit) and fought west to the Suez Canal during the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

(1973). Later he returned to Golani Brigade as a deputy commander of a combat support company, and was discharged from reserve duty with a rank of a Major ( he, רב סרן), at the age of 46, as a patrol officer in the Armored Corps. He is married to Sara, an educational counselor by training who writes

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...

. They live in Bnei Brak and have seven children and dozens of grandchildren.

Academic career

He obtained his BSc (1977), MSc (1979) and PhD (1983, summa cum laude) from the Chemistry Department at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academi ...

(BIU). In parallel to his PhD degree, he completed a full degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

(1981) from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology). He was a postdoctoral fellow (1983-1985) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio, led by Professor Ernest B. Yeager. In 1985 he joined the Chemistry Department at Bar-Ilan University and founded the electrochemistry group. Since October 1996 he is a full professor in the Chemistry Department and a Senate member at BIU. Between 2001 and 2005 he chaired the Chemistry Department and between 2010 and 2016 he chaired the Israel Labs Accreditation Authority. Aurbach is the Director of the Energy and Sustainable Center of Bar-Ilan University which he founded in 2021. Aurbach's group belongs (together with other research groups from the US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, and Germany) to a network of excellence in the field of advanced materials for power sources, founded and supported by

BASF BASF SE () is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries ...

. His group benefits from a long-term collaboration with General Motors, working together on advanced power sources for electro-mobility (electric vehicles). Aurbach manages a budget of more than 56 million

NIS Nis, Niš, NiS or NIS may refer to: Places * Niš, a city in Serbia * Nis, Iran, a village * Ness, Lewis ( gd, Nis, links=no), a village in the Outer Hebrides islands Businesses and organizations * Naftna Industrija Srbije, Petroleum Industry o ...

as a founder and a leader of the Israel National Research Center for

Electrochemical Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outc ...

Propulsion Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived f ...

(INREP), comprising 26 research groups from seven Israeli institutions supported by the Israel Council for Higher Education and the Prime-Minister's office. Aurbach is the head of the newly established center for Energy and Sustainability at Bar-Ilan University. Aurbach is a member of the small management team called IMLB LLC Ltd of the world organization of the advanced Li batteries community. Aurbach belongs to the international scientific board of the French Energy Network RS2E and to the international scientific board of Daegu Institute of Technology (DGIST) in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (ECS),

Materials Research Society The Materials Research Society (MRS) is a non-profit, professional organization for materials researchers, scientists and engineers. Established in 1973, MRS is a member-driven organization of approximately 14,000 materials researchers from academi ...

(MRS), the

International Society of Electrochemistry The International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) is a global scientific society founded in 1949. The Head Office of ISE is located now in Lausanne, Switzerland. ISE is a Member Organization of IUPAC. The Society has now more than 1900 Individual ...

(ISE), and a member in the European Academy of Science (since 2015). Aurbach serves (since 2003) as an Editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. During 2007 and 2015 he served also as a Senior Editor for the Journal of

Solid-State Solid state, or solid matter, is one of the four fundamental states of matter. Solid state may also refer to: Electronics * Solid-state electronics, circuits built of solid materials * Solid state ionics, study of ionic conductors and their use ...

Electrochemistry (

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

). Among his students are Prof. Arie Zaban, President of Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Yair Ein-Eli, Dean of the faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion, and a number of other senior academic faculty members.

Scientific research

The scope of Aurbach research includes all aspects of nonaqueous

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...

, many kinds of batteries: Li, Li-ion, Na-ion, Mg, metal (Li, Al)-air, Li-sulfur and lead-acid systems, super and

pseudocapacitor Pseudocapacitors store electrical energy faradaically by electron charge transfer between electrode and electrolyte. This is accomplished through electrosorption, reduction-oxidation reactions ( redox reactions), and intercalation processes, ...

s, and electrochemical water desalination. He pioneered the use of some of the most effective analytical (spectroscopic and microscopic) techniques for operando studies of the most reactive electrochemical systems (e.g. Li and Mg metal

anode An anode is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the device. A common mnemonic ...

s in nonaqueous electrolyte solutions). In his research Aurbach was able to identify major surface reactions which lead to the passivation of active

electrode An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials d ...

s which compose rechargeable battery systems ( Li, Li-C, Li-Si, lithiated

transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. They are the elements that ca ...

oxides, Mg) in the relevant non-aqueous electrolyte solutions. His work promoted and developed important basic scientific topics which form the solid basis for the practical development of high energy density power sources. These included nonaqueous electrochemistry, active metals electrochemistry, understanding intercalation

s and the correlation between structure, morphology,

surface chemistry Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid– gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid– gas interfaces. It includes the fi ...

and electrochemical performance of electrodes which are relevant to high energy density batteries. Prof. Aurbach also invented the field of

rechargeable A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or prim ...

magnesium batteries, demonstrating working prototypes of

Mg batteries.

Awards

Doron Aurbach has won several prizes, among them is the 2020 Israel Chemical Society (ICS) Gold Medal,The 2020 ICS Gold Medal
/ref> the Eric and Sheila Samsom Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation in

alternative fuel Alternative fuel, known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels like; ''fossil fuels'' (petroleum (oil), coal, and natural gas), as well as nuclear materi ...

s for Transportation (2018).The 2018 Samsom Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation in alternative fuels for Transportation
/ref> His other awards include the

Alexander Frumkin Alexander Naumovich Frumkin (Алекса́ндр Нау́мович Фру́мкин) (October 24, 1895 – May 27, 1976) was a Russian/Soviet Union, Soviet electrochemistry, electrochemist, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1 ...

Medal of the

Frumkin Memorial Medal - ISE
/ref> (2018), Allen J. Bard Medal of the Electrochemical SocietyAllen J. Bard Award in Electrochemical Science
/ref> (2017), Ernest B. Yeager award of the International Battery Association (IBA) for career-long achievements in power sources researchProf. winner of the 2014 Ernest B. Yeager Award, Bar-Ilan Spokesman office
/ref> (2014), the Kolthoff prize of the Technion for excellence in chemical research (2013), the Research Award of the Battery Division of the Electrochemical Society (2013),ECS - Battery Division Research Award
/ref> the Israel Chemical Society Prize of Excellence (2012), the Landau Prize for

Green Chemistry Green chemistry, also called sustainable chemistry, is an area of chemistry and chemical engineering focused on the design of products and processes that minimize or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. While environmental che ...

(2011), the Edwards Company Prize of the Israel Vacuum Society for Research Excellence (2007) and the Technology Award of the Battery Division of the Electrochemical Society (2005).

Publications

Aurbach has published more than 750 research papers in leading electrochemistry, materials science, and physical chemistry journals. These papers have been cited < 86200 times with

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

143 (Google Scholar). The statistics from the Web of Science are h-index 127, < 68000 citations (May 2022). During 2021 alone, he was cited nearly 8400 times ( Web of Science); 9800 (Google Scholar). He belongs to the most cited scientists (top 1%) in 2018-2021 as published by the Web of Science and Clarivate analytics. Aurbach is in the list of the world's most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. According to Research.com, a platform that offers credible data on scientific contributions, Aurbach ranks 89th and 133rd on the list of the world's leading scientists in Chemistry and Material Science, respectively. He ranks 2nd in the list of leading scientists of Israel in both fields.Top Chemistry Scientists published by Research.com
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aurbach, Doron 1952 births Living people Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University Israeli chemists Jewish chemists