Dr. Manthiram graduated from Madurai University, India, with a B.S. degree in 1974 and a M. S. degree in 1976. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras with a Ph.D. degree in Solid State Chemistry in 1980. After his doctoral degree, Dr. Manthiram worked as a Lecturer at the Madurai Kamaraj University in Madurai for four years, and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford in England for one year. He joined the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoctoral researcher in 1986 and became Assistant Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1991. He was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2000 and he currently holds the Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering #5. He is also currently the Director of the Texas Materials Institute and the Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program.

Dr. Manthiram directs a large, productive research group in electrochemical energy technologies with about 30 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. He has trained and mentored more than 265 students and postdoctoral researchers, including the graduation of 63 PhD students. Among them, 52 are faculty around the world and several hold leadership positions in industry. His current research is focused on rechargeable batteries and fuel cells. Specifically, his group is engaged in developing low-cost, efficient, durable materials for batteries and fuel cells and a fundamental understanding of their structure-property-performance relationships. Dr. Manthiram has authored more than 830 journal articles and 15 awarded patents. He has given 450 presentations, including 350 invited talks around the world. He has more than 73,000 citations and an h-index of 134. He is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher every year since 2017, which places him one among 6,200 scientists/engineers in all fields in the world.

Dr. Manthiram has received several awards: Engineering Foundation Faculty Excellence Award (1994), Mechanical Engineering Faculty Leadership Award (1996), Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award (2011), University of Texas Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award (one university-wide award per year, 2012), Battery Division Research Award from the Electrochemical Society (2014), Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2015), Billy and Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award (2016), Da Vinci Award (2018), Honorary Mechanical Engineer of the ME Academy of Distinguished Alumni Award (2019), Henry B. Linford Award for Distinguished Teaching from the Electrochemical Society (2020), and International Battery Association Research Award (2020). He is an elected Fellow of six societies: American Ceramic Society (2004), World Academy of Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (2006), Electrochemical Society (2011), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2015), Royal Society of Chemistry (2015), and Materials Research Society (2016). He is also an elected academician of the World Academy of Ceramics (2020). He has been honored with various endowment awards: Charlotte Maer Patton Centennial Fellowship in Engineering (1998), Ashley H. Priddy Centennial Professorship in Engineering (2002), BF Goodrich Endowed Professorship in Materials Engineering (2006), Jack S. Josey Professorship in Energy Studies (2008), Joe C. Walter Chair in Engineering (2009), and Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering (2014). He delivered the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize Lecture in Stockholm on behalf of Professor John Goodenough.

Most Recent Publications

1. B. Heligman, K. J. Kreder III, and A. Manthiram, “Zn-Sn Interdigitated Eutectic Alloy Anodes with High-Volumetric Capacity for Lithium-ion Batteries,” Joule 3, 1051-1063 (2019).
2. S.-H. Chung and A. Manthiram, “Current Status and Future Prospects of Metal-Sulfur Batteries,” Advanced Materials 31, 1901125 (2019).
3. W. Li, E. M. Erickson, and A. Manthiram, “High-nickel Layered Oxide Cathodes for Lithium-based Automotive Batteries,” Nature Energy 5, 26-34 (2020).
4. A. Manthiram, “A Reflection on Lithium-ion Battery Cathode Chemistry,” Nature Communications 11, 1550 (2020).
5. W. Li, S. Lee, and A. Manthiram, “High-nickel NMA: A Cobalt-free Alternative to NMC and NCA Cathodes for Lithium-ion Batteries,” Advanced Materials, 2002718: 1-6 (2020).   
6. S. Nanda and A. Manthiram, “Lithium Degradation in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Insights into Inventory Depletion and Interphasial Evolution with Cycling,” Energy & Environmental Science 13, 2501 – 2514 (2020).
7. H. Yaghoobnejad Asl and A. Manthiram, “Reigning in Dissolved Transition Metal Ions” Science 369, 140-141 (2020).  
8. J. Lamb, L. Stokes, and A. Manthiram, “Delineating the Capacity Fading Mechanisms of Na(Ni_0.3Fe_0.4Mn_0.3)O₂ at Higher Operating Voltages in Sodium-ion Cells,” Chemistry of Materials 32, 7389–7396 (2020).  
9. S. Sharma and A. Manthiram, “Towards More Environmentally and Socially Responsible Batteries,” Energy and Environmental Science, 13, 4087-4097 (2020).
10. H. Yaghoobnejad Asl and A. Manthiram, “Proton-induced Disproportionation of Jahn-Teller-active Transition-metal Ions in Oxides due to Electronically-driven Lattice Instability,” Journal of the American Chemical Society 142, 21122-21130 (2020).