Events

“Energy is the only universal currency: one of its many forms must be transformed to another in order for stars to shine, planets to rotate, plants to grow, and civilizations to evolve.” – Vaclav Smil

In this talk I will present my journey in the energy world, and in particular, my thoughts on the role of new battery materials and chemistries in enabling a clean, abundant future. The enablement of next-generation battery chemistries with Earth-abundant elements will be instrumental in lessening the probability of critical mineral bottlenecks as our civilization grows to accommodate hundreds of GWh of energy storage capability. I will present an overview of my academic work into two such chemistries: lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries and Li-ion batteries with silicon anodes, with a focus on how electrolyte solution-coordination behavior can be creatively modified and manipulated for favorable performance. I will also provide context for how my own views on electrochemical energy storage have evolved during my time in academic, national lab, and industry environments.

Views in this talk are the speaker’s and do not necessarily represent the views of any current or past employer.

About the speaker

Abhay Gupta is a senior cell materials engineer at Tesla, where he designs and manufactures EV battery materials at GWh-scale in Austin, TX. He obtained his B.S. from the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016, after which he joined the Texas Materials Institute to pursue a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering. During his Ph.D., he developed high-energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries to combat cell degradation in low-temperature environments; he was awarded a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship and worked jointly on his projects at UT Austin and at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Afterwards, he pursued postdoctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL, focusing on developing silicon anodes for next-generation lithium-ion cell chemistries. He was selected for the 2024 list of Forbes 30 under 30 in Energy.