Bio

Dr. Ahmet Kusoglu is a Staff Scientist in the Energy Conversion Group at Berkeley Lab, working on functional polymeric materials for energy and environmental applications, and related chemical-mechanical phenomena in electrochemical devices. Dr. Kusoglu holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering, the latter of which he received from University of Delaware, where he studied the mechanical characterization and durability of ionomer membranes and earned a graduate fellowship award. In 2010, he joined Berkeley Lab as a chemist post-doctoral fellow to study membrane transport and durability in fuel cells and flow batteries. His research at Berkeley Lab has involves modeling and experimental characterization of ion-containing polymers, thin films and their interfaces in an effort to understand and improve their functionalities in various electrochemical energy devices (e.g., fuel cells, water-splitting devices, and flow batteries). Dr. Kusoglu has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal publications and two book chapters on ionomers and polymer-electrolyte membranes. He is the recipient of 2016 S.Srinivasan Young Investigator Award of the Energy Technology Division of the Electrochemical Society and 2017-2018 ECS Toyota Fellowship. He was the thrust coordinator for ionomers and cell components in multi-lab consortium for Fuel Cell Performance and Durability (FC-PAD) and is the current chief communication officer for M2FCT (Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck). His research focuses on fundamental understanding of degradation and failure mechanisms of fuel-cell membranes, structure-function relationships in composite and thin-film ionomers, as well as their structural characterization through advanced X-ray techniques at the Advanced Light Source (ALS).