Shirley Meng, Ph.D.

Dr. Shirley Meng received her Ph.D. in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005, after which she worked as a postdoc research fellow and became a research scientist at MIT. Shirley currently holds the Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies and is Professor of NanoEngineering and Materials Science, University of California San Diego (UCSD). She is the founding Director of Sustainable Power and Energy Center (http://spec.ucsd.edu). Shirley received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2011, UCSD Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Collaboratories Award in 2013, Science Award in Electrochemistry by BASF and Volkswagen in 2014,  C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016), IUMRS-Singapore Young Scientist Research Award (2017),International Coalition for Energy Storage and Innovation (ICESI) Inaugural Young Career Award (2018), American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award (2018) and Finalist for the Blavatnik National Award (2018). Her research group – Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) – focuses on functional nano and micro-scale materials for energy storage and conversion. The more recent programs include the design, synthesis, processing, and operando characterization of energy storage materials in advanced rechargeable batteries; new intercalation materials for sodium ion batteries; and advanced flow batteries for grids large scale storage. Shirley is the author and co-author of more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles, 1 book chapter and 6 patents. She serves on the executive committee for battery division at the Electrochemical Society and she is the technical Editor for Journal of Power Sources. Dr. Meng’s current CV may be downloaded here.

Contact Information

Room 242G, Structural & Materials Engineering (SME) Building
University of California San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, MC0448
La Jolla, CA 92093-0448

Phone: 858-822-4247
Fax: 858-534-9553
Email: shirleymeng@ucsd.edu
Web: http://smeng.ucsd.edu     Link: SPEC center

Administrative Contact:

Ms. Shuang Bai
Room 242 pod, SME Building
Email: s1bai@eng.ucsd.edu
Research Highlights
  • Combining first principles computation with experiments to pre-screen and design new high energy high power electrode materials – Meng’s Ph.D. work was the first of this kind and was awarded the prestigious MRS Graduate Student Award.
  • Pioneering in investigations into the ion transport, phase transformations and surface/interface stability in lithium and sodium intercalation compounds for electrochemical energy storage with aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy with electron energy loss spectroscopy (a-STEM/EELS)
  • Developed advanced neutron-based characterization techniques of electrode materials, including   in-situ measurements of oxygen evolutions in high voltage cathode materials.
  •  Developed nano battery fabrication with Focused Ion Beam (FIB)/SEM and in situ biasing and monitoring of solid/solid electrode electrolyte interfaces during electrochemical processes.
Research Interests

Rechargeable batteries (energy storage) for electric vehicles and renewable energy sources, functional ceramics materials for energy storage and conversion, operando characterization (electron scattering, x-ray and neutron scattering), first principles computation guided materials discovery and design.

Teaching Interests
  • Thermodynamics of Materials – Nano148 (undergrad)
  • Advanced Characterization for Nanosystems – Nan111 (undergrad) CENG230 (graduate)
  • Energy Storage and Conversion – Nano 164 (undergrad) Nano261 (graduate)
Education, Professional Experience & Spin-Offs

2017–Now, Professor, NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego
2013–2017, Associate Professor, NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego
2009–2013, Assistant Professor, NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego
2009–2013, Adjunct Professor, Materials Science & Engineering, University of Florida
2008–2009, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida
2007–2008, Research Scientist, Materials Science & Engineering, MIT

Editorial and Professional Society
  • Founding Director of Sustainable Power and Energy Center (http://spec.ucsd.edu) The SPEC consists more than fifteen faculty members from interdisciplinary fields, who all focus on making breakthroughs in distributed energy generation, storage and the accompanying integration-management systems.
  • Fellow of the Electrochemical Society 2018 to present
  • Executive Board Member and Secretary (Elected) for Battery Division of the Electrochemical Society USA (2014 – present)    
  • Executive Board Member and Treasurer for International Battery Association (IBA), 2017 – now
  • Editor-in-Chief – MRS Energy&Sustainability 2019 to present
  • Technical Editor– Journal of Power Sources (IF 6.7) 2015 to present
  • Associate Editor–NPG Asia Materials (IF 9.0) 2012-2015
  • Editorial Board Member – Ionics (IF 1.7) Sustainable Energy and Fuels (new journal 2016), Advanced
  • Energy Materials (IF 21.8) and Chemical Reviews (IF 47.9)
  • Guest Editor – First focused issue for Journal of the Electrochemical Society (JES) on “Intercalation Compounds” (co-editor, Stanley Whittingham)
  • Guest Editor – Focused issue for MRS Bulletin on “Frontier in In Situ TEM” (co-editors, Haimei Zheng and Yimei Zhu)
  • Regular reviewer for Journal of American Chemical Society, Chemistry of Materials, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, Solid State Ionics, Journal of Materials Research, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Advanced Energy Materials, ACS Nano and Energy and Environmental Science, Nature Communications, Nature Chemistry and Science.
  • Panel reviewer for National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, USA and various overseas funding agencies including Hong Kong Council of Research, German Research Foundation, Israel Science Foundation and Canada Foundation for Innovation, Swiss National Science Foundation, Singapore A*STAR
PI Honors & Awards
  • 2019, Chancellor’s Associates Faculty Excellence Award for Excellence in Research in Science and Engineering
  • 2019, IBA2019 Research Award of International Battery Materials Association (IBA)
  • 2018, Elected Fellow of Electrochemical Society (ECS)
  • 2018, Blavatnik National Awards Finalist http://blavatnikawards.org/
  • 2018, American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award 2018, International Coalition for Energy Storage and Innovation (ICESI) Inaugural Young Career Award
  • 2017, IUMRS-Singapore Young Scientist Research Award
  • 2016, Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Award Finalist (Honorable mention)
  • 2016, Charles W. Tobias Award, Electrochemical Society
  • 2015, Frontier of Innovation Award
  • 2014, Science Award Electrochemistry by BASF and Volkswagen
  • 2013, Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Research Award 
  • 2011, National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award
  • 2011, Christopher Fell (Meng’s first Ph.D. student) won the Student Award of Battery Division, the Electrochemical Society.
  • 2008, Early Career Faculty Travel Award (The Electrochemical Society)
  • 2003, Graduate Student Award (Materials Research Society)
  • 2002, Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd (SSMC) Award
  • 2000, Singapore-MIT Alliance Postgraduate Study Scholarship (2000-2005)