Rechargeable Li-ion batteries are everywhere in our daily life today. They store energy and power our smartphones and laptops, our cordless drills, children’s hoverboards, steps or E-bikes, not to mention the hundreds of electric car models available these days. Scientifically, the design and operation of rechargeable batteries is predicated on orchestrating flows of mass, charge, and energy across multiple interfaces. Understanding such flows requires knowledge of atomistic and mesoscale diffusion pathways and the coupling of ion transport with electron conduction. As part of the Chemistry Kilpatrick Lecture Series, Dr. Sarbajit Banerjee, the Davidson Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, and a Chancellor’s EDGES Fellow at Texas A&M University, will give a talk on “Designing and Architecting Battery Electrode Materials across Length Scales” on March 19, 3:15–4:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Pritzker Science Center, PS 111. All are welcome. Email Yuanbing Mao at ymao17@iit.edu for further details.

The annual Kilpatrick Lecture Symposium is made possible through a generous gift from the Kilpatrick Trust to honor Martin and Mary Kilpatrick who were outstanding researchers and educators. Martin served as the Chair of Illinois Tech’s Chemistry Department from 1947–1960, and Mary was a chemistry professor from 1947–1964. Past Kilpatrick Lecture Symposia have honored speakers including Roald Hoffmann, Dan Nocera, George Whitesides, John D. Roberts, Henry Taube, William Lipscomb, Jack Halpern, Jacqueline Barton, Mark Wrighton, Mary Anne Fox, K. C. Nicolaou, Julius Rebek, Barry Trost, and Fraser Stoddart (https://www.iit.edu/chemistry/about/kilpatrick-lecture-series).