Electrification and Energy Infrastructure Division
Dr. Ilias Belharouak earned his BS in inorganic chemistry from Cadi Ayyad University in Morocco and received his MS and PhD in materials science from Bordeaux 1 University in France. Before joining ORNL in 2017, he was the research director and founding chief scientist of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Center at Qatar Foundation. At the same time, Dr. Belharouak served as a professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University for 2 years. At Qatar Foundation, he was entrusted with the execution of $15 million annually to position the State of Qatar in the field of energy and environment.
Dr. Belharouak also served as a material scientist at Argonne National Laboratory from 2001 to 2013. At Argonne, he was the principal investigator of several battery materials–related technologies for high-energy density and high-power density lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, and lithium-sulfur batteries. His research interests include high-power and high-energy lithium-ion batteries and beyond lithium-ion battery technology; battery materials and molecular discovery and design; electrolytes and additives; engineering and scale-up of battery components and cells; multiscale range characterization of battery components and interfaces; diagnostics, postmortem, and probing of aging phenomena in batteries.
Dr. Belharouak became a Corporate Fellow in 2022 and serves as Electrification section head at ORNL, overseeing multidisciplinary R&D programs sponsored by multiple government agencies and industries on works relating to battery energy storage and advanced manufacturing. Under his leadership, ORNL has developed and matured the Battery Manufacturing Facility, created a line organization dedicated to developing and advancing cutting-edge battery and energy storage technologies, and led ORNL to being recognized as a national leader in energy technology R&D.
Dr. Belharouak serves on DOE’s ReCell Advanced Battery Recycling Center advisory board and is a member of the Li-Bridge Joint Operations Leadership Group. In addition to these roles, he is a professor in the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. Dr. Belharouak has a genuine concern and passion for enabling his ORNL colleagues and others across the technical community to grow technically and professionally. He serves as a day-to-day mentor for staff and has been successful in growing early-career staff members into leadership roles at ORNL. He has mentored numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students to degree completion.
Dr. Belharouak’s impact has been recognized with numerous awards including six R&D 100 awards and four Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers and five books and holds 50 US patents and patent applications. Dr. Belharouak serves as the editor of Elsevier’s Journal of Power Sources and has been invited to present 66 keynote and plenary presentations in 17 different countries. His scientific contributions will continue to have significant impact on the electrification and clean energy needs of the United States and international community.
