Science AMA Series: I’m Gerbrand Ceder, a battery scientist at Berkeley
Lab, and I research new ways to improve energy storage technologies. Ask
Me Anything!
Abstract
Hi Reddit! I’m Gerbrand Ceder, though I go by “Gerd” as my first name.
I’m the lead scientist for multi-valent batteries at the Joint Center
for Energy Storage at Berkeley Lab, and a faculty scientist in the
Materials Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab. I am also the Chancellor’s
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley. I look
forward to answering your questions about building better batteries for
a better future. Recently, my team and I shed light on how lithium-rich
cathodes work, which could lead to higher capacity batteries. You can
read about that here. And here is my website. I received an engineering
degree from the University of Leuven, Belgium, and a Ph.D. in Materials
Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. Between
1991 and 2015, I was a Professor in Materials Science at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and braved the hard Massachusetts
winters. As a college student in engineering I was fascinated by the
tremendous impact novel materials could have on society, and decided to
make it my career to come up with more rational methods to design novel
materials, rather than just “try and see.” I rode the wave of
computing growth and became one of the first “computational materials
designers.” In the early 90’s I got involved with Li-ion batteries, at
the time a very nascent technology. It has been a wild ride since then,
seeing the multiple waves of impact this technology is having as it
moves from portable electronics to vehicles, and now to grid. The little
time I am not working I enjoy listening to loud music, baking bread
(preferably at the same time), or doing a good hike. I look forward to
your questions. Edit: I’m live and answering your questions. Thanks to
everyone who has submitted thus far. I’ll be answering until 3p ET/12p
PT. Here we go… Edit: It’s noon and my laptop battery is at
2%… So, I must go! Thanks for joining me today. Be sure to check
out the links above and below for more on battery research and stay
tuned for more science reddit AMAs from Berkeley Lab. Cheers! Berkeley
Lab Joint Center for Energy Storage