Ying Shirley Meng () is a materials scientist and professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

and Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) chief scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Meng is the author and co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapter and six patents. She serves on the executive committee for battery division at the Electrochemical Society and she is the Editor-in-Chief for ''MRS Energy & Sustainability''.

Education and career

Meng studied materials engineering at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science. She was a doctoral student in the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) program,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

's largest international research initiative. She earned her doctoral degree in materials science under the supervision of

Gerbrand Ceder Gerbrand Ceder is a Belgian–American scientist who is the Daniel M. Tellep Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. He is notable for his pioneering research in high-throughput compu ...

in 2005, after which she joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2008 Meng joined the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

as an Assistant Professor of Materials Science. She moved to the Nanoengineering department at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

in 2009, where she also was a professor in the Materials Science Program. She was the founding director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center from 2015 to 2020. In 2018, Meng was named the Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies. She was also the inaugural director of Institute for Materials Discovery and Design at University of California, San Diego from 2019. In 2022, Meng joined the

Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) is the first school of engineering at the University of Chicago. It was founded as the Institute for Molecular Engineering in 2011 by the university in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory ...

as professor, as well as Argonne National Laboratory as chief scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS).

Research

Meng's research focuses on investigating functional nano- and micro-scale materials for energy storage and conversion by combining advanced characterizations such as titration gas chromatography,

cryo-EM Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a cryomicroscopy technique applied on samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures. For biological specimens, the structure is preserved by embedding in an environment of vitreous ice. An aqueous sample so ...

, cryo-FIB, in situ CDXI, etc. and first-principles simulations. Her research includes lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, all-solid-state batteries, magnetic materials and third-generation solar cells. Recently, Meng established the analytical method of titration gas chromatography to quantify the contribution of unreacted metallic Li to the total amount of inactive lithium for diagnosing the failure mechanism in lithium metal batteries. Her research work with her students has led to battery startups spinning out from her lab. One example is South 8 Technologies, a company that is commercializing liquefied gas electrolyte, developed as part of research by Cyrus Rustomji (UC San Diego PhD '15), that allows for lithium batteries to work at cold temperatures.

Awards and honors

* 2002, Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd (SSMC) Award * 2003, Graduate Student Award (

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 ...

) * 2008, Early Career Faculty Travel Award (The Electrochemical Society) * 2011, National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award * 2013, Chancellor's Interdisciplinary Research Award * 2014, Science Award Electrochemistry by BASF and Volkswagen * 2015, Frontier of Innovation Award * 2016, Charles W. Tobias Award, Electrochemical Society * 2017, IUMRS-Singapore Young Scientist Research Award * 2018, Elected Fellow of Electrochemical Society (ECS) * 2018, Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Finalist * 2018, American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award 2018, International Coalition for Energy Storage and Innovation (ICESI) Inaugural Young Career Award * 2019, Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Finalist *2019, Chancellor’s Associates Faculty Excellence Award for Excellence in Research in Science and Engineering * 2019, IBA2019 Research Award of International Battery Materials Association (IBA) * 2021, Fellow of the

Professional memberships

Electrochemical Society; Materials Research Society; American Chemical Society.

Selected publications

* * * * * *

References

Nanyang Technological University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, San Diego people University of Chicago faculty Argonne National Laboratory people Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Improve categories, date=September 2020