Faculty Profiles
Ping Liu
Professor, NENG
Materials and architectures for energy conversion and storage; solid-state actuation; nanomaterials synthesis and reaction mechanism in batteries; energy storage device architecture design.
Professor Liu’s research focuses on designing materials and architectures for electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications. One area of interest is studying the mechanical behavior of rechargeable batteries in the context of optimization as either solid-state actuators or as long- life electrochemical energy storage devices. A second area is synthesizing nanostructured materials and probing the effect of composition and size on the thermodynamics and kinetics when they are used as battery materials. A third area is designing new architectures for energy storage devices with enhanced energy density while maintain long service life. Diverse approaches including new electrolyte development, interfacial structure design, and battery cell configuration engineering are employed.
Capsule Bio:
Prior to joining the Jacobs School faculty, Professor Ping Liu has been a Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) since 2012, where he initiated and managed research programs in energy storage for electric vehicles and thermal management technologies to improve building energy efficiency. He was the manager of the Energy Technology Department at HRL Laboratories and was a research staff member with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Fudan University in China 1995. He was a Distinguished Inventor in multiple years at HRL and won an R&D 100 award in 2009 for a battery technology developed at NREL. Liu has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and has been issued 36 US patents in the broad areas of batteries, fuel cells, sensors and actuators.
Selected Publications:
