Y. Shirley Meng

Y. Shirley Meng is the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. She also serves as Chief Scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) and Director of the Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA). Her research focuses on designing advanced materials for energy storage through computational modeling and advanced characterization techniques. Meng leads the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC), which pioneers innovations in batteries and energy systems.

Education: PhD in Advanced Materials from the Singapore-MIT Alliance (2005), Bachelor’s degree from Nanyang Technological University (2000). Previously, she held the Zable Endowed Chair Professorship at UC San Diego before joining UChicago in 2023.

Research Interests: Meng’s work centers on energy storage materials, solid-state batteries, lithium metal batteries, and sustainable technologies. She employs synchrotron X-ray tomography, FIB-SEM imaging, and computational methods to study material behavior at atomic and macroscopic scales.

Awards: Recipient of the Faraday Medal (2020), IBA Battery Research Award (2019), and NSF CAREER Award (2011). Elected Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (FECS) and Materials Research Society (FMRS).

Grants & Advising: Principal Investigator of LESC and multiple industry-funded projects. Advises on national energy initiatives and serves as Editor-in-Chief for MRS Energy & Sustainability. Current projects include anode-free solid-state batteries, electrolyte recycling, and AI-driven material discovery.

Labs & Teams: The LES lab collaborates with Argonne National Laboratory and industry partners on battery development. Meng’s team focuses on translating fundamental discoveries into scalable energy storage solutions.