March 27, 2025: Argonne National Laboratory senior scientist Shirley Meng has been presented with the Shep Wolsky 2025 Battery Innovator award for her work on battery materials and energy storage.

Meng, who is chief scientist at the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science and a professor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PSME), received the award at the International Battery Seminar in Florida on March 21.

She is also director of the Energy Storage Research Alliance, an innovation hub funded in 2024 by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

PSME said her work had transformed ways to design and manipulate energy storage materials. Her contributions include discoveries of novel electrolyte, electro materials, and super ionic conductors for both lithium and sodium batteries.

Meng later said she was dedicating the award to past and present members of the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion at the University of Chicago and University of California San Diego.

The battery innovator award is presented annually in memory of Wolsky, who died in 2017.

In 2023, Meng was honoured by The Electrochemical Society for her work on battery tech innovations.