For his exceptional contributions in nanomaterials design, synthesis and characterisation for energy and the environment, particularly for transformational innovations in battery science
Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University, co-director of the StorageX Initiative, professor of materials science and engineering
At Stanford University, Yi Cui is the director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, co-director of the StorageX Initiative, professor of materials science and engineering. A cleantech pioneer and entrepreneur, Cui earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1998 from the University of Science & Technology of China and his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University in 2002. He was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 2002 to 2005 before joining the Stanford faculty. Cui manages a large Stanford research group, from which alumni have succeeded in academia and businesses. He has founded five companies to commercialize the energy and environment technologies from his lab: Amprius, 4C Air, EEnotech, EnerVenue and LifeLab Design Inc.
A preeminent researcher of nanotechnologies for better batteries and other sustainability technologies, Cui has published more than 500 studies and is one of the world’s most cited scientists. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Materials Research Society, the Electrochemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is an executive editor of Nano Letters and co-director of the Battery 500 Consortium, co-director of Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium.
In 2021, U.S. Department of Energy awarded Cui an Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award which honors mid-career scientists and engineers in eight research fields. Other awards include: Materials Research Society Medal (2020), Electro Chemical Society Battery Technology Award (2019), Nano Today Award (2019), Blavatnik National Laureate (2017), and the Sloan Research Fellowship (2010).