The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has named renowned battery scientist Venkat Srinivasan the next director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS), a center which seeks to commercialize battery and energy storage technologies.
Srinivasan has strong connections with Argonne, having served as deputy director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) while in his previous role as a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. JCESR is a DOE Energy Innovation Hub led by Argonne that seeks to create next-generation batteries with energy storage potential beyond that of current lithium-ion batteries. Srinivasan will continue in his role with JCESR.
Founded in late 2015, ACCESS facilitates industrial coordination with Argonne’s energy storage programs, creating a unique two-way street for researchers at Argonne to connect with potential collaborators in industry. Through ACCESS, industrial researchers can tap into Argonne’s already established energy storage technologies, or they can leverage Argonne expertise to address new challenges of particular importance to industry.
“I’m deeply passionate about finding ideas and ways to move technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace,” Srinivasan said. “That’s why I’m excited to lead an organization like ACCESS, which is able to make the most of the full breadth of energy storage work at Argonne. From fundamental materials research through scale-up, ACCESS can find ways to bring the full benefits of this work to the market and the consumer.”
“Venkat brings to Argonne a special combination of scientific savvy, understanding of how to make technology ready for the market and a familiarity with Argonne’s battery programs,” said Argonne Deputy Laboratory Director for Operations and Chief Operations Officer Paul Kearns. “He is unusually well equipped to generate the biggest impact from the world-class scientific research we conduct at Argonne.”
At Berkeley Lab, Srinivasan conceived the idea of CalCharge, a public-private partnership in energy storage. By combining this experience with the potential reach of ACCESS, he hopes to explore the role of such consortia in developing and enabling a roadmap for U.S. manufacturing of advanced batteries.
Srinivasan also previously served at Berkeley Lab as the technical manager of the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) Program, as the acting director of that program, as department head of the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Department and as the interim director of that division.
He joined the scientific staff at Berkeley Lab in 2003 after postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 2000.
Since 2010, Srinivasan has hosted a popular blog called This Week in Batteries, which examines the technical and market impacts of battery technologies.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
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