Susan Babinec

Susan Jean Babinec is an American battery scientist who is Program Lead for Stationary Storage at the Argonne National Laboratory. She looks to develop a future electric grid for the United States.

Susan Jean Babinec
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin
Scientific career
InstitutionsUnited States Department of Energy
Dow Chemical Company
Argonne National Laboratory

Early life and education

Babinec completed a degree in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin.[1]

Research and career

Babinec spent the first twenty years of her career at Dow Chemical Company, where she worked as a senior electrochemist.[2] She was honored as Inventor of the Year, and the first woman corporate fellow.[2] At Dow, Babinec worked on cathode electrodes for lithium ion batteries. She investigated how the binder and porosity of the electrodes impacted the electrochemical and mechanical properties.[3] She co-invented a low cost display technology that became a venture-funded start-up. She became frustrated by Dow's lack of investment in new technologies, and moved to A123, a company who were pursuing new battery materials.[1] When A123 found a defect in one of their batteries, they were forced to recall products, which resulted in the company going bankrupt.[1]

Babinec joined the United States Department of Energy ARPA-E program that looked to support energy projects.[1] During her six years at ARPA-E, Babinec invested $120 million into battery companies, including Natron Energy, Sila Nanotechnologies and Ion Storage Systems.[1]

In 2019, Babinec was appointed to Argonne National Laboratory's grid energy storage program.[4][5] She looks to optimize energy storage capabilities by integrating grid design with industry needs.[4] To better understand battery materials, she developed rapid life cycle evaluations and pioneered the use of artificial intelligence.[6] She launched the Battery Data Genome project, a challenge to collect, store and share usable information from every stage of the battery lifecycle.[7][8] The Battery Data Genome Project looks to transform understanding about electric vehicles.[9][10]

Selected publications
  • Albertus, Paul; Babinec, Susan; Litzelman, Scott; Newman, Aron (2017-12-18). "Status and challenges in enabling the lithium metal electrode for high-energy and low-cost rechargeable batteries". Nature Energy. 3 (1): 16–21. doi:10.1038/s41560-017-0047-2. ISSN 2058-7546.
  • Caldwell, W. Brett; Chen, Kaimin; Mirkin, Chad A.; Babinec, Susan J. (August 1993). "Self-assembled monolayer films of fullerene C60 on cysteamine-modified gold". Langmuir. 9 (8): 1945–1947. doi:10.1021/la00032a002. ISSN 0743-7463.

Personal life

Babinec is an athlete, and has played competitively since her time at college.[11]

References
  1. Journal, Scott Patterson | Photographs by Lucy Hewett For The Wall Street. "In the Race for Batteries, One Scientist Has Seen It All". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  2. "3/12: Power Lunch with Sue Babinec".
  3. "Section News" (PDF). Electrochem.
  4. "Babinec to coordinate Argonne's grid energy storage program". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  5. Whelan, Carolyn (2022-04-04). "2050: Susan Babinec - The Storage Slayer". Driving Change. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  6. "Battery Power Online | Argonne National Labs Using AI To Predict Battery Cycles". 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  7. "Envisioning the Battery Data Genome, a central data hub for battery innovation | Argonne National Laboratory". www.anl.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  8. "Scientists are getting energized about a massive battery 'genome' project". Popular Science. 2022-10-26. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  9. "There's still a lot we don't know about EV batteries. This massive new research project aims to find answers".
  10. "Susan Babinec". Science Friday. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  11. "Spotlight: Susan Babinec – Women in Science and Technology". Retrieved 2023-03-17.
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