Laboratory Fellow and supplies scientist Wei Wang has been named 2025 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Inventor of the Year, one of the Laboratory’s highest recognitions for innovation and expertise commercialization.
Presented as half of PNNL’s Pathway to Excellence awards in June, the honor acknowledges researchers who’ve a major all-time physique of work and excellent contributions to an intensive mental property portfolio that has led to industrial engagement and influence. Wang’s contributions to vitality storage had led him to affix a choose group of 21 earlier recipients in the Laboratory’s historical past to obtain this distinction. Wang’s innovations have helped remodel grid vitality storage from a distinct segment analysis subject into applied sciences which might be manufactured and deployed commercially.
For Wang, the recognition is very significant as a result of it displays the progress of a subject that was as soon as thought of extremely area of interest.
“I think we are in a time where energy storage has become an important, popular topic but is still an emerging technology type,” Wang stated. “To receive this award and understand that PNNL is recognizing the work in this new emerging area is exciting and encouraging.”
Leading by way of innovation
Wang is a nationally acknowledged scientist who serves as the deputy director for the Energy Storage Research Alliance, is a technical lead for stationary vitality storage analysis and improvement, and beforehand directed PNNL’s Energy Storage Materials Initiative (ESMI) from 2019 to 2024. His pioneering contributions to redox flow batteries and electrolyte solvation chemistry have earned quite a few honors from the American Chemical Society, The Electrochemical Society, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Laboratory Consortium, and R&D 100.
A Battelle Distinguished Inventor, Wang holds greater than 20 patents with a number of licenses and has authored greater than 80 scientific publications, leading to being named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.
“Wei’s impact can be seen not only in the technologies and intellectual property he has created but in the scientific enterprise he helped build,” stated Bill Pike, deputy director for science and expertise at PNNL. “He recognized the potential of energy storage long before it became a major national priority and helped establish the capabilities, collaborations, and research directions that have made PNNL a leader in the field. His career demonstrates how scientific vision, sustained over time, can transform an emerging area of research into a strategic strength for the Laboratory and the nation.”
Beyond his technical achievements, Wang has emphasised collaboration, mentorship, and scientific exploration. He co-founded the International Coalition for Energy Storage and has inspired early-career researchers to pursue new concepts.
“I encourage junior scientists to be really bold in their ideas and research directions,” stated Wang. “If you sense the need to start in a new research direction, don’t be afraid to explore those different ideas or pathways.”
A subject earlier than its time
While pursuing his doctorate in supplies science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Wang linked with Daiwon Choi, a fellow CMU alumnus who had just lately joined PNNL.
At the time, battery vitality storage analysis at PNNL was restricted, so Choi inspired him to use. PNNL employed Wang earlier than he accomplished his diploma, permitting him to complete his remaining 12 months earlier than becoming a member of the laboratory full time.
When Wang arrived at PNNL, battery analysis obtained modest help from the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity. As the U.S. grid grew extra advanced and electrical energy wants elevated, dependable long-duration vitality storage turned more and more essential for sustaining a safe and dependable electrical grid. This rising nationwide want reworked vitality storage from a specialised analysis subject right into a strategic precedence.
Although skilled in lithium-ion batteries, Wang rapidly expanded into a number of electrochemical vitality storage applied sciences, laying basis for his later work in redox stream batteries.
That work led to an R&D 100 Award for growing a nanocomposite material that greatly improves the performance of lithium-ion batteries.
“Wei has played a defining role in transforming energy storage from an emerging research area into one of PNNL’s signature strengths for the U.S. Department of Energy,” stated Christina Lomasney-Mattis, chief commercialization officer at PNNL. “His inventions have generated valuable intellectual property, attracted commercial partners, and helped accelerate the deployment of technologies that support a more resilient energy future. His career is a powerful example of how sustained scientific excellence, combined with a commitment to technology transfer, can create lasting national impact.”
Soon after, Wang started engaged on redox stream batteries, which retailer vitality in liquid electrolytes and supply promising potential for grid-scale vitality storage.
From area of interest analysis to an vitality storage powerhouse
Working with stream battery techniques, Wang and his crew tackled one of the expertise’s most persistent challenges: electrolyte instability at excessive temperatures. These situations could cause strong deposits to type, lowering battery efficiency and lifespan.
The crew found that rigorously controlling how ions work together with surrounding solvent molecules—referred to as solvation chemistry—might dramatically enhance electrolyte stability, stopping damaging reactions and considerably enhancing battery stability.
“Having worked with Wei for many years, I’ve seen how his ideas often evolve into technologies with real commercial impact,” stated Allan Tuan, senior commercialization supervisor at PNNL. “His combination of scientific creativity, rigor, and collaborative leadership continues to shape the energy storage field in meaningful and lasting ways.”
The ensuing expertise was licensed for industrial improvement, serving to translate PNNL’s elementary advances in electrolyte chemistry into sensible options for long-duration, grid-scale vitality storage.
The success attracted rising help from a number of companions, permitting the program to increase into long-duration vitality storage, battery manufacturing and scale-up, supplies improvement, diagnostics, and industrial demonstration tasks. The work laid the basis for PNNL’s progress into one of the world’s main analysis and improvement facilities for grid vitality storage.
Expanding the influence
In 2017, Wang championed a brand new imaginative and prescient for vitality storage supplies discovery—integrating robotics, synthetic intelligence, high-throughput experimentation, principle, computation, and digital twins to speed up the discovery and improvement of next-generation supplies.
Recognizing the rising significance of vitality storage, PNNL management requested Wang to assist form the future of the subject at PNNL. Working with scientists, engineers, and researchers from a number of disciplines, he spent two years growing the Energy Storage Materials Initiative (ESMI), a five-year strategic funding to develop new scientific approaches that speed up vitality storage analysis and improvement.
From 2019 to 2024, Wang served as ESMI’s director, serving to develop workflows and frameworks that mix new capabilities that use AI, automation, and robotics to judge supplies and information experiments extra effectively. The initiative created PNNL’s Materials Innovation through Robotics and AI Laboratory (MIRAL) as a nationally acknowledged functionality for AI- and robotics-enabled supplies discovery, situated inside the Grid Storage Launchpad.
Beyond constructing new analysis capabilities, Wang has additionally contributed to broader DOE efforts by way of an in depth task with the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, serving to strengthen connections between vitality storage analysis and superior manufacturing.
“Wei has been an exceptional mentor and supporter of early-career researchers,” stated Ruozhu Feng, a seedling challenge chief for ESMI. “Through ESMI, he has created space for us to explore new ideas, develop emerging concepts, and build confidence as independent scientific leaders. I have greatly appreciated his guidance, encouragement, and trust.”
An enduring legacy
Despite his many accomplishments, Wang credit collaboration and a willingness to pursue unsure concepts as the basis for innovation.
“Einstein asked, ‘If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?,’” stated Wang. “Most of the time we don’t know what we’re doing, but what I find rewarding is the colliding of different ideas on this team. That is the spark that leads us towards a better understanding of what we’re trying to do.”
Today, the grid vitality storage portfolio that Wang and others helped construct spans elementary science, superior manufacturing, grid-scale techniques, synthetic intelligence, and manufacturing deployment. What started as a distinct segment analysis space supported by modest funding has grown into a significant space of innovation at PNNL and throughout the vitality sector.
For Wang, that evolution represents the most rewarding half of the journey—not merely the patents, awards, or funding, however seeing concepts mature into applied sciences and watching the folks behind them develop into leaders themselves.
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About PNNL
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory attracts on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology and information science to advance scientific information and deal with challenges in vitality resiliency and nationwide safety. Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle and supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of primary analysis in the bodily sciences in the United States and is working to handle some of the most urgent challenges of our time. For extra data, go to the DOE Office of Science website. For extra data on PNNL, go to PNNL’s News Center. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.