Interview with Dr. Lin Ma—Winner of the Batteries 2022 Young Investigator Award

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Batteries 2022 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Lin Ma.

Name: Dr. Lin Ma Affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA

Self-introduction:

My name is Dr. Lin Ma, and currently, I am an assistant professor at UNC Charlotte, USA. It is my great honor to be given this award by Batteries (ISSN: 2313-0105). I am originally from Lanzhou, Gansu, where energy is often an issue, especially in the winter. Therefore, I decided to conduct energy-related research in my career. My research interests focus on the use of electrochemical and materials engineering in energy storage systems to address energy and environmental challenges. My research includes the design and synthesis of novel electrode materials and electrolyte systems (including inorganic materials, organic materials and polymer materials), insights into fundamental reaction mechanism and kinetics, investigations of thermodynamics-electrode/electrolyte interfacial structure–property correlations, and the development of functional electrochemical devices.

The following is a short interview with Dr. Lin Ma:

1. What are you currently researching, and what made you choose this field?

My group currently focuses on sustaining energy storage technology. As we know, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely used in electric vehicles and grid applications to address global climate changes. But the amount of critical LIBs elements (e.g., lithium; cobalt; nickel) on earth is limited, which requires reusing these elements in a proper way to refurbish high-performance LIBs or developing “beyond-Li” battery technology.

2. Which research topics do you think are of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?

It is hard for me to predict the future. There are so many new and promising research directions people are pursuing. For example, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. It would be ideal to expand interdisciplinary research to address practical issues in the future.

3. Can you briefly describe the key to a happy laboratory life?

I believe the key element is to get exciting research results. It typically happens two to three times per year, but the excitement can last very long.

4. Have you had difficulties to overcome in your work? How did you approach those situations?

Sometimes it is very difficult to get any progress on my research. If this happens, I typically try to discuss it with other people to brainstorm the potential issues and solutions. Then, I will sit down and carefully select the proper strategies to overcome it.

5. What qualities do you think young scientists need?

Persistency, diligence, and self-motivation.

6. Batteries is an open access journal. How do you think open access impacts authors?

I believe open access means a lot to the readers. It can make a wide range of readers know the cutting-edge research results in time. It will also release the financial burden for the young research groups and help them to expose their research results to the whole community.

7. As the winner of this award, is there anything else you would like to say or anyone you would like to thank?

I would like to thank various funding agencies and fellowships for financial support during my career. I would like to thank Prof. Yong Yang from Xiamen University, China, who introduced me to the energy storage field and helped me through my career. I would also like to thank all the colleagues from Xiamen University.
I would like to thank Prof. Jeff Dahn from Dalhousie University, Canada, who supervised me over six years during my Ph.D. I would also like to thank all my colleagues from Dalhousie University.
I would like to thank Dr. Kang Xu (Army Research Lab), Dr. Oleg Borodin (Army Research Lab) and Prof. Chunsheng Wang (University of Maryland, USA), who supervised and guided me during my postdoc time. I would also like to thank colleagues from the Army Research Lab and the University of Maryland.
It is so fortunate to have a great research community in the field of energy storage. I do appreciate the support from the whole community.
Lastly, I would like to thank my family members for their strong support, especially from my wife, Yang.