Adam Weber

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) announced Dr. Adam Weber will be the recipient of the esteemed 2024 Neil Armstrong™ Award of Excellence. The award recognizes an Astronaut Scholar alum who best exemplifies the personal character and professional achievements of the first human to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.

Dr. Adam Weber (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) for exceptional co-leadership of the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck national lab consortium and outstanding contributions to state-of-the-art fuel cell modeling and characterization.

www.electrochem.org/243/division-awards

A Tool to Accelerate Electrochemical and Solid-State Innovation

Berkeley Lab scientists invented a microelectrode cell to analyze and test electrochemical systems with solid electrolytes. Thanks to significant cost and performance advantages, this tool can accelerate development of critical applications such as energy storage and conversion (fuel cells, batteries, electrolyzers), carbon capture, desalination, and industrial decarbonization.

Solid electrolytes have been displacing liquid electrolytes as the focus of electrochemical innovation because of their performance, safety, and cost advantages. However, the lack of effective methods and equipment for studying solid electrolytes has hindered advancement of the technologies that employ them. This microelectrode cell meets the testing needs, and is already being used by Berkeley Lab scientists.

Adam Weber, who leads the Energy Conversion Group within Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Energy Technologies Area, was recently named to the Electrochemical Society's 2018 Class of Fellows. The fellows are chosen for their scientific achievements, leadership and service to the society.

Weber's current research involves understanding and optimizing fuel-cell and electrolyzer performance and lifetime using advanced modeling and diagnostics, understanding flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage, and analysis of solar-fuel generators. Recently, he co-explored novel routes towards improving polymer-electrolyte fuel-cell performance with thin-film electrodes. The research appeared in Joule earlier this year.

He also serves as a Thrust Coordinator in the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), Deputy Director of the HydroGen – Advanced Water Splitting Materials (H2-AWSM) consortium, Deputy Director of Fuel Cell – Performance and Durability (FC-PAD) consortium, and Lab Program Manager for Fuel-Cell Technologies Office. He is the past chair of the Energy Technologies Division of the Electrochemical Society.

Weber will receive the Class of Fellows honor as part of the 234th ECS meeting this October in Cancun, Mexico.

For leadership in Electrochemical Area (involvement with fuel cells and electrolyzers, and other electro-chemical means relating to hydrogen processing). Sir William Grove was the inventor of the fuel cell in England in 1839, producing electricity and water from hydrogen and oxygen.

Adam Weber was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for 2014, and was invited to attend the 2014 U.S. Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium held in November 2014 at the National Academy of Sciences at the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA. Jointly sponsored by the US National Academy of Sciences and The Kavli Foundation, the Kavli Frontiers of Science bring together some of the very best young scientists to discuss exciting advances and opportunities in their fields in a format that encourages informal collective, as well as one-on-one discussions among participants. These are highly interdisciplinary symposia emphasizing communication of a wide range of contemporary science topics across the traditional disciplines. The Kavli Frontiers of Science symposia are attended by approximately 80 to 100 scholars under 45 years of age. Participants include leading researchers from academic, industrial, and federal laboratories in such disciplines as astronomy, astrophysics, atmospheric science, biology, biomedicine, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, genetics, material sciences, mathematical sciences, neurosciences, pharmacology, and physics. The NAS and Kavli foundation advisory board selects Kavli fellows from among scientists who received prestigious fellowships, awards, and other honors, or who are nominated by NAS members and previous fellows. Eighteen percent of those elected to the National Academy of Sciences have been Kavli fellows. Over one hundred and forty Kavli fellows have been elected to the NAS since the program's inception in 1989 and eight have won Nobel Prizes.

The Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award was established in 2003 by The Electrochemical Society to recognize outstanding scientific and/or engineering work in fundamental or applied electrochemistry or solid-state science and technology by a young scientist or engineer.

Dr. Weber was being recognized for the promise he shows as a developing leader of research in electrochemistry and in particular fuel cells, flow batteries, and solar-fuel generators.

The Presidential Early Career Awards embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the Nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges, and contribute to the American economy. The awards, established by President Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.

Adam Weber, of EETD's Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Department, has received the Supramaniam Srinivasan Young Investigator Award of The Electrochemical Society recognizing outstanding young researchers in the field of energy technology.

Ahmet Kusoglu, Anthony Kwong, Kyle Clark, Haluna Gunterman and Adam Z. Weber received the Best Poster award at the 2012 Fuel Cell Science and Technology Grove Conference, Berlin for a poster titles "Water Uptake in Fuel‐Cell Catalyst Layers." 

The International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) award is presented to a scientist under 35 years of age based on publication record and impact in the field.