Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds academic affiliations with the Beckman Institute, Materials Science and Engineering, and Computational Science and Engineering. His research focuses on microstructure and transport in porous materials, electrochemical systems, and energy storage technologies. Smith earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University (2007 and 2012, respectively), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT.

His work emphasizes electrochemical desalination, flow battery optimization, and multi-scale modeling. Key research interests include designing low-pressure flow fields for efficient desalination and improving energy storage via novel electrode configurations. Smith has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and holds multiple patents on desalination and flow battery technologies.

Notable awards include the 2024 Dean's Award for Early Innovation and the 2018 ISE-Elsevier Prize. He teaches courses in heat transfer and fluid mechanics, consistently ranked as an excellent instructor. His group's innovations, such as tapered interdigitated flow fields, have advanced energy-efficient desalination and electrochemical systems.