Marm Dixit, a Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow in the Emerging and Solid-State Batteries Group at ORNL, has received a Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship for Projects in Green Energy Technology from the Electrochemical Society. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Marm Dixit, a Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow in the Emerging and Solid-State Batteries Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been awarded a Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship for Projects in Green Energy Technology from the Electrochemical Society, or ECS.
The fellowship provides funding for young scientists and engineers to pursue battery and fuel cell research with an emphasis on unique, innovative or unconventional technical approaches and the feasibility of the technology to positively impact the field of green energy. Dixit was one of five recipients chosen for 2021-22 fellowship program from a highly competitive field of candidates.
Dixit’s project, “Lithium Metal Polymorphism and its Impact on Anode Integration in Solid-State Batteries,” will investigate the use of dense lithium metals to improve the storage of lithium in high-performing, solid-state batteries. The goal is to improve battery energy density, thereby greatly increasing the driving range of electric vehicles.
“ORNL is proud that Marm’s expertise in solid-state battery research is being recognized by the Electrochemical Society and Toyota,” said Xin Sun, associate laboratory director for energy science and technology at ORNL. “The materials, chemistry and manufacturing breakthroughs being developed by ORNL’s scientists for advanced batteries support an efficient, decarbonized transportation sector.”
Dixit’s research at ORNL focuses on modeling, simulation, characterization and experimentation to explore new materials and processes for solid-state batteries that could triple the driving range of today’s electric vehicles. His work has resulted in new insights and potential solutions to the challenge of dendrite growth in various solid electrolytes that can destabilize advanced batteries. His current work at ORNL is focused on practical solid-state battery systems, including the development of a software-based tool to evaluate system design implications.
Dixit holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University, where his graduate career focused on understanding the processing, structure and function of solid-state batteries using techniques such as synchrotron and neutron characterization.
He joined ORNL in January 2021 under its Distinguished Staff Fellowship Program, a competitive, prestigious early-career program. The Alvin M. Weinberg fellowship honors ORNL’s longest serving director. Weinberg fellows generally align with applied, experimental and computational sciences and demonstrate competency in chemistry and chemical engineering, radiochemistry, materials science and engineering, nuclear science and engineering, and manufacturing science and engineering.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
