News and Announcements

September 9, 2024: Dr. E was invited to deliver a Plenary lecture at the 2024 International Battery Materials Assorication (IBA) meeting. Below, she is pictured with Nobel laureate Professor Akira Yoshino, the first to build a lithium ion battery , who also gave a Plenary lecture. The experience of sharing the stage with some of the leading figures in the field was truly inspiring for Dr. E and the lab group as a whole!

DrE and AY

August 30, 2024: Congratulations again to Edelmy Marin Bernardez on receiving the 2024 BNL Fowler Award in Chemical and Biochemical Sciences from Brookhaven National Laboratory! She will be presenting a talk and receiving her award on Monday, September 9, at 11 a.m. in the Hamilton Seminar Room in Building 555 at BNL, with a virtual option via Zoom. Each awardee will receive a $3,500 award, funded by the Chemistry Division, Energy & Photon Sciences Directorate, and Human Resources. You can learn more about the award here.

August 11, 2024: Welcome back to Jessica Luo from attending The 26th National School on Neutron and X-Ray Scattering hosted by Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 2 weeks! We look forward to hearing about your experience and what you’ve learned! Read more about the program here.

August 8, 2024: Congratulations to our summer interns, Linda and Anthony, from BNL's Summer Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program, for successfully presenting their posters during the symposium. We also want to commend Linda for her excellent 10-minute presentation on her summer research! Thank you to all the graduate students who contributed to mentoring these students, with special appreciation to Edelmy Marin Bernardez for serving as their primary point of contact.

August 1, 2024: Congratulations to our summer interns, Sarah and Adora, from Stony Brook's REU program, for successfully presenting their posters during the symposium. Thank you to all the graduate students who contributed to mentoring these students, with special appreciation to Jessica Luo and David Arnot for serving as their primary point of contact.

July 27, 2024: Congratulations to Edelmy Marin Bernardez for recieving the BNL Fowler Award in the Chemical and Biochemical Sciences for 2024 from Brookhaven National Lab!

June 2024: Esther Takeuchi was recently honored by the Journal of Physical Chemistry C in a special Festschrift issue. Here is the link: Esther Sans Takeuchi Festschrift (acs.org)

June 28, 2024: Senator Chuck Schumer's team came to visit Brookhaven National Laboratory and stopped by the Interdisciplinary Science Building to meet some of the group's students.

cschumervist

June 26, 2024: Marie Francoise C. Millares was featured on Stony Brook Unviersity's social media as this week's student spotlight. You can read more about the post here.

May 9, 2024: Congratulations to Marie Francoise C. Millares for being selected for the 2024 State University of New York (SUNY) Graduate Research Empowering and Accelerating Talent (GREAT) award! You can read more about the award and awardees here.

May 3, 2024: Congratulations to Tyler (Steven) King for his successful defense and graduating Stony Brook Unviersity with a Ph.D. in Chemistry!

May 6, 2024: Congratulations to Edelmy Marin Bernardez for her successful completion of her Third Meeting requirements. Next up, her thesis defense!

May 2024: Congratulations to Patrick Barry and Armando Rodriguez Campos on their advancement to candidacy! They are now third year Ph.D. candidates in the chemistry deprtment.

April 8, 2024: Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm visited the National Synchrotron Light Source-II and met graduate student Edelmy Marin Bernardez, a representative for early career scientists.

March 19, 2024: Graduate student Edelmy Marin Bernardez attended the 2024 ACS Spring Meeting held by American Chemical Society and presented her research.

EdelmyACS2024

February 28, 2024: Congratulations to Edelmy Marin Bernardez on receiving the Turner Conference Travel Award!

August 2, 2023: EFRC m2M#S Conference was held at Stony Brook University! This was a two day in-person event filled with technical talks, presentations, and a student poster showcase.

efrc2023

June 8, 2023: Congratulations to Marie Francoise C. Millares on receiving the 2022-2023 Turner Summer Research Grant!

May 22, 2023: Congratulations to Nahian Sadique, Gurpreet Singh, Mallory Villa, and Daren Wu for each of their successful defense and graduating Stony Brook Unviersity with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Chemistry, respectively!

may 2023 grad 1

March 29, 2023: Congratulations to Marie Francoise C. Millares for receiving the 2023 National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)! You can read more about the NSF GRFP and its awardees here.

March 8, 2023: Congratulations to Edelmy Marin Bernardez and David Arnot for being selected for the 2023 State University of New York (SUNY) Graduate Research Empowering and Accelerating Talent (GREAT) award! You can read more about the award and awardees here.

December 14, 2023: Congratulations to Alexis Pace for her successful master's thesis defense and graduating Stony Brook Unviersity with a M.S. in Chemistry!

December 16, 2022: Congratulations to Patrick West for his successful defense and graduating Stony Brook Unviersity with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering!

Patrick with Dr E and Dr M at graduation

December 7, 2022: Congratulations to Edelmy Marin Bernardez on her United States citizenship!

Dr Esther Takeuchi with Edelmy and citizenship certificate

Edelmy and group

December 2, 2022: Graduate students Nahian Sadique, Gurpreet Singh, Mallory Villa, and Daren Wu attended the 2022 MRS Fall Meeting held by the Materials Research Society and presented their research.

July 14, 2022: I:SEE Scientist Collaborator Dr. David Bock was named as an honoree in Stony Brook University's 2021 40 Under Forty award. The semi-annual award recognizes outstanding achievement by graduates of the University in various fields including Science & Engineering, Healthcare, Education, and Civil Service & Activism. Dr. Bock and the other awardees will be recognized at a reception dinner in New York City in September. You can read more about the 40 Under Forty award here.

May 24, 2022: Institute postdoctoral researcher Dr. Calvin Quilty has been selected as a recipient of the Stony Brook University Presidential Postdoctoral Extension Award. More information about the Presidential Dissertation Completion and Extension awards can be found here.

CalvinAward

May 20, 2022: 6 I:SEE graduate students successfully defended their theses this semester to receive their PhDs, congratulations to Drs. Diana Lutz, Chris Tang, Mikaela Dunkin, Alison McCarthy, Genesis Renderos, and Wenzao Li!

April 4, 2022: I:SEE graduate students David Arnot and Edelmy Marin Bernardez have been selected as winners in the 2022 National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)! You can read more about the NSF GRFP here.

February 14, 2022: Congratulations to Institute alum Altug Poyraz for recieving his United States citizenship! Dr. Poyraz received his PhD from the University of Connecticut in 2015 and was a postdoctoral researcher in I:SEE from 2015 to 2017. In 2017, he became an Assistant Professor in Chemistry at Kennesaw State University where he remained until the end of 2021. Earlier this year, he accepted a position at Intel Corporation. Congratulations Dr. Poyraz!

January 24, 2022: The 2022 National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences has been awarded to Prof. Esther Takeuchi for her breakthrough contributions to the materials and mechanistic understanding relevant to electrochemical energy storage, using chemical insight to address issues of critical importance. Congratulations on this prestigious achievement! You can read more about the NAS Award here. Additional press coverage by Innovate Long Island can be found here.

December 2021: Congratulations to Alison McCarthy for winning a Best Poster Award at the MRS Fall 2021 Conference! She presented her work published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (paper link).

AliMRSPoster

October 14, 2021: Congratulations to Dr. E for being the 2020 recipient of the Edward Goodrich Acheson Award presented by the Electrochemical Society! She will be giving an address at the 240th ECS Meeting (free registration) on Thursday, Oct 14th 2021. To learn more about the award, click here.

August 2021: The Institute for Energy Sustainability and Equity, founded by Dr. Esther Takeuchi in 2020 at Stony Brook University, has received a $2.2 million grant from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Office of Renewable Energy/Vehicles Technology. The institute will involve researchers from Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory (shown below), and Brown University. To learn more about the exciting research happening at the institute, click here!

Institute

August 2021: Congratulations to Edelmy for becoming a Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Doctoral Fellow! To learn more about this honor, click here.

Our recent Zn aqueous battery research was highlighted by WSHU, a local NPR network, in a segment titled "We Need Better Batteries to Slow Climate Change. Long Island Researchers May Have Found Them." Check it out here!

June 2021: Our group's recent research, led by those shown below, on Zn aqueous batteries which utilized advanced synchrotron data from the National Synchrotron Light Source-II was highlighted by both Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University. You can read more about the research here.

ResearchZnAqueous Highlight

June 2021: Mikaela Dunkin is the 2021 recipient of the Renate W. Chasman Award presented by Brookhaven National Laboratory Women in Science (WIS). Below is a screenshot from her presentation held June 29, 2021. Congrats Mikaela! Read more about the award and Mikaela here.

ChasmanMikaela

May 2021: Dr. Esther Takeuchi spoke about medical batteries during "The Magic of Energy" episode on The Pulse podcast hosted by WHYY. Tune in at ~36:30 for her segement!

podcast

April 2021: In honor of Women's History Month, the DOE's Energy Storage Grand Challenge highlighted key women, such as Dr Amy Marschilok, at national laboratories working on energy storage. Read more here!

April 2021: Congratulations to Dr Esther Takeuchi for being elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences! To learn more, click here or read more by SBU news.

April 2021: Killian Tallman was named the recipient of the 2021 Chemistry Department Maria Tzamarioudaki Memorial Award for Outstanding Doctoral Student--Congratulations Killian!

Dr. Esther Takeuchi and Lisa Housel were highlighted in an article by the Electrochemical Society (ECS) titled "ECS Celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science"--check it out here!

February 2021: Congratulations to Killian for successfully defending his dissertation!

Congratulations to Patrick for receiving an Outstanding Teaching Award from the Materials Science & Engineering Department (Dec 2020)!

Congratulations to Killian for receiving 4th place prize in the NY-BEST 2020 Energy Storage Technology and Innovation Conference Student Poster session! (December 2020)

Edelmy Marin Bernardez was named a recipient of the Dr. W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship. Congratulations to Edelmy! You can learn more about the fellowship here. (Aug 2020)

We are welcoming 2 new graduate students, Edelmy and Cynthia, to the group! (Aug 2020)

Congratulations to Lisa and Alyson for successfully defending their dissertations! (May 2020)

Lisa Housel was named the recipient of the 2020 Energy Technology Division Graduate Student Award sponsored by Bio-Logic by the Electrochemical Society. To read more about the award, click here. To read Lisa's talk abstract, click here. Congratulations Lisa! (May 2020)

Lisa Housel was named a recipient of the Chemistry Award for Outstanding Doctoral Student, and Alyson Abraham received the Chemistry Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research from the Chemistry Department at SBU. Congratulations to you both! (April 2020)

Genesis Renderos was named a 2020-2021 Turner Dissertation Fellow. Congratulations to Genesis! You can learn more about the fellowship here.

Dr. Esther Takeuchi contributed to a C&EN article in the Nov 18, 2019 issue titled "Peeking inside energy devices," which discusses new in-situ and operando techniques for analyzing battery systems. Our group's use of EDXRD (energy dispersive X-ray diffraction) is highlighted via this paper. Check it out here!

Congratulations to Patrick and Mikaela for receiving Outstanding Teaching Awards from the Materials Science & Engineering Department (Dec 2019)!

Congratulations to Gurpreet, Mallory, and Nahian on passing their first meetings and advancing to candidacy! (Nov-Dec 2019)

Dr. Esther Takeuchi received the Sigma Xi Walston Chubb Award for Innovation, Congratulations Dr. E! Read more about the award here and her interview with American Scientist here. (Nov 2019)

Alison, Mikaela, and Chris T. all passed their prelimary meeting and are now Ph.D. candidates. Congrats everyone! (Summer 2019)

We are welcoming 3 new graduate students to our lab: Chris, Tyler, and Jason! (Aug 2019)

Dr. David Bock was promoted to Associate Scientist at Brookhaven National Lab, Congrats Dave! (2019)

Killian and Dr. David Bock presented at the EFRC Principal Investigator's meeting in Washington, D.C., along with Calvin, Lisa, and Lei. Great job everyone!

m2M/t Director and SUNY Distinguished Professor, Esther Takeuchi, received an honorary degree from Notre Dame University and was invited to give the main address at the Notre Dame University Graduate School Commencement ceremony on May 18, 2019. You can view her address here.

Andrea Bruck and Bingjie Zhang defended their Ph.D. thesis! (May 2019)

Graduate students, Diana Lutz and Chris Tang, received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for the 2019 award cycle. See story here.

Lei Wang accepted a position as an Assistant Scientist at Brookhaven National Lab, Congrats Lei! (Dec 2018)

Calvin, Diana, Genesis, and Wenzao all passed their first meeting and are now Ph.D. candidates. Congrats everyone! (Nov-Dec 2018)

We are welcoming 5 new graduate students to our lab: Patrick, Daren, Nahian, Gurpreet, Mallory! (June-Aug 2018)

Dr. Esther Takeuchi won the 2018 European Inventor Award in the category “Non-EPO countries.” The European Patent Office (EPO) announced the winners of its 2018 innovation prize at a ceremony in Paris on June 7. Out of four U.S. scientists nominated for the award, she is the only American to bring home Europe’s most prestigious prize of innovation. Read more here.

Graduate student, Bingjie Zhang, received the 14th Annual Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship. See story here.

Our group collaborator, Dr. Yimei Zhu, at Brookhaven National lab was awarded 2018 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Microscopy Center of America. Congratulations, we are always delighted to work with you and your group! See story here.

Luke Holtzman, an undergraduate BNL-SULI student with us in summer 2017, was named a 2018 Goldwater Scholar, Congrats Luke! See the article by SUNY Geneseo here! (April 2018)

Dr. Esther Takeuchi was featured in an article by ECS celebrating women in science and addressing barriers that are continually being broken by pioneering women in a variety of scientific fields. Read more here.

Qing Zhang has accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Associate at Kostas Research Institute, LLC (KRI) of Northeastern University, Congrats Qing! (Feb 2018)

Invited paper “Investigation of α-MnO₂ Tunneled Structures as Model Cation Hosts for Energy Storage” was published in the journal Accounts of Chemical Research (Feb 2018) (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.accounts.7b0047

Mercedes-Benz Research Development North America to Support Advanced Power Sources Lab at Stony Brook University (Feb 2018)(Read the full article from SBU here!)

Paper “The Effect of Silver Ion Occupancy on Hollandite Lattice Structure” was published in MRS Advances! (Feb 2018) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.8b00244

Paper “Synthesis and Characterization of CuFe₂O₄ Nano/sub-micron Wires-Carbon Nanotube Composites as Binder-free Anodes for Li-ion Batteries” was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces! (Feb 2018) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.8b00244

Paul Smith accepted an Assistant Professorship at Valparaiso University, Congrats Paul! (Dec 2017)

We are welcoming a new graduate student to our lab, welcome Mikaela! (Dec 2017)

Paper “Unveiling the Structural Evolution of Ag_1.2Mn₈O₁₆ under Coulombically Controlled (De)Lithiation” was published in Chemistry of Materials! (Dec 2017)

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b03599

Killian passed his first meeting and is now a Ph.D. candidate, Congrats Killian! (Dec 2017)

Paper “Deliberately Designed Atomic-Level Silver-Containing Interface Results in Improved Rate Capability and Utilization of Silver Hollandite for Lithium-Ion Storage” was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces! (Dec 2017) http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.7b12307

Andrea Bruck wrote a feature article for the EFRC newsletter!

(Nov 2017) https://www.energyfrontier.us/content/teaching-computer-be-scientist

Paper “Deliberate modification of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) during lithiation of magnetite, Fe₃O₄: impact on electrochemistry” was published in Chemical Communications! (Nov 2017) pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlehtml/2017/cc/c7cc07142f

We are welcoming a new graduate student to our lab, welcome Wenzao! (Oct 2017)

Jiefu Yin is awarded 13th annual Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship from Brookhaven National Lab, Congrats Jiefu! (Oct 2017) https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=212541

YueRu Li accepted a position as a Research Scientist at BETTERGY CORP., Congrats YueRu! (Sept 2017)

Yiman Zhang accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Congrats Yiman! (Aug 2017)

We are welcoming 5 new graduate students to our lab: Calvin, Diana, Ali, Chris, and Genesis! (Aug 2017)

Qing Zhang and Yiman Zhang defended their Ph.D. thesis! (Aug 2017)

Paper “Hybrid Ag₂VO₂PO₄/CF_x as a High Capacity and Energy Cathode for Primary Batteries” was published by the Journal of The Electrochemical Society! (Aug 2017)

http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/164/12/A2457.short

Paper “Zerovalent Copper Intercalated Birnessite as a Cathode for Lithium Ion Batteries: Extending Cycle Life” was published by the Journal of The Electrochemical Society! (July 2017)

http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/164/9/A2151.short

Paper “Size dependent behavior of Fe₃O₄ crystals during electrochemical (de)lithiation: an in situ X-ray diffraction, ex situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and theoretical investigation” published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics! (July 2017)

http://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlehtml/2017/cp/c7cp03312e

Andrea Bruck received the American Crystallography Association Etter Student Lecturer award, Congrats Andrea! (June 2017)

We are welcoming three undergraduate REU students to lab for the summer, we are excited to work you: Julia, Hannah, and Luke! (June 2017)

Yue Ru Li and Christina Cama defended their Ph.D. thesis! (June 2017)

Paper “Lithium Vanadium Oxide (Li_1.1V₃O₈) Coated with Amorphous Lithium Phosphorous Oxynitride (LiPON): Role of Material Morphology and Interfacial Structure on Resulting Electrochemistry” was published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society! (May 2017)

http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/164/7/A1503.short

David Bock accepted a position as an Assistant Scientist at Brookhaven National Lab, Congrats Dave! (May 2017)

Dr. E was interviewed by Time Magazine on how ‘Batteries Could Revolutionize Renewable Energy’. (May 2017) http://time.com/4756648/batteries-clean-energy-renewables/

Paper “Visualization of structural evolution and phase distribution of a lithium vanadium oxide (Li_1.1V₃O₈) electrode via an operando and in situ energy dispersive X-ray diffraction technique” was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics! (May 2017)

http://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlehtml/2015/cp/c7cp02239e

Paper “Operando Synchrotron XRD Investigation of Silver Metal Formation upon Electrochemical Reduction of Silver Iron Pyrophosphate (Ag₇Fe₃(P₂O₇)₄)” was published in Journal of Physical Chemistry C! (April 2017)

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b03723

Paper “Synthetic Control of Crystallite Size of Silver Vanadium Phosphorous Oxide (Ag_0.50VOPO₄·1.9H₂O): Impact on Electrochemistry” was published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society! (April 2017) http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/164/6/A1213.short

Paper “Probing Titanium Disulfide-Sulfur Composite Materials for Li-S Batteries via In Situ X-ray Diffraction (XRD)” was published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society! (March 2017)

http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/164/4/A897.short

Christina Cama accepted an Assistant Professorship at St. Cloud State University, Congrats Christina! (March 2017)

Paper “Holy Grails in Chemistry: Investigating and Understanding Fast Electron/Cation Coupled Transport within Inorganic Ionic Matrices” published as part of the Accounts of Chemical Research special issue “Holy Grails in Chemistry”. (March 2017)

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00540

Paper “Magnesium-ion battery-relevant electrochemistry of MgMn₂O₄: crystallite size effects and the notable role of electrolyte water content” published by Chemical Communications! (March 2017) pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlehtml/2017/cc/c7cc00265c

Paper “Probing the Li Insertion Mechanism of ZnFe₂O₄ in Li-Ion Batteries: A Combined X-Ray Diffraction, Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure, and Density Functional Theory Study” was published in Chemistry of Materials! (Feb 2017)

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00467

Paper “Investigation of Structural Evolution of Li_1.1V₃O₈ by In Situ X-ray Diffraction and Density Functional Theory Calculations” was published in Chemistry of Materials! (Feb 2017)

pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00096

Dr. E was Named Knapp Chair in Energy and the Environment at Stony Brook University! (Jan 2017) www.stonybrook.edu/campaign/creating-a-sustainable-earth-batteries-included/

Published 4 papers as part of the Focus Issue of Selected Papers from IMLB 2016 with Invited Papers Celebrating 25 Years of Lithium Ion Batteries for the Journal of The Electrochemical Society: “Rate Dependent Multi-Mechanism Discharge of Ag_0.50VOPO₄·1.8H₂O: Insights from In Situ Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction,” “Interaction of FeS₂ and Sulfur in Li-S Battery System,” “Tailoring

the Ag⁺ Content within the Tunnels and on the Exposed Surfaces of α-MnO₂ Nanowires: Impact on Impedance and Electrochemistry,” “The Electrochemistry of Fe₃O₄/Polypyrrole Composite Electrodes in Lithium-Ion Cells: The Role of Polypyrrole in Capacity Retention”! (Jan 2017)