Pacific Northwest National Laboratory now has 16 WSAS members
Two scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been selected to join the Washington State Academy of Sciences.
Suresh Baskaran and Jun Liu will join other scientists and engineers from across the state being recognized for outstanding scientific achievement and leadership. Academy members provide expert scientific and engineering analysis to inform public policy-making, and work to increase the role and visibility of science in Washington state.
The academy was created in 2005 and consists of members from diverse academic disciplines and industries, including aerospace, agriculture, computer, science, energy, engineering, ecology and transportation. The two new inductees bring PNNL's total number of current staff who are members to 16.
Twenty-four new members will be inducted this year, bringing the total number of active members to 264. The incoming members will be honored at the academy's annual meeting in Seattle in September.
Suresh Baskaran
Baskaran is the chief science and technology officer for energy and environmental research at PNNL. He is responsible for directing science and technology investments to deliver solutions for the nation's most important energy and environment challenges. He was recognized for development of new materials for automotive, fuel cell, and microelectronic applications; leadership of hydrogen and gas separations research; and leadership in advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. His research is reflected in 50 technical papers, ten U.S. patents, a spark plug resistor technology that was put into full-scale production by industry, and an R&D 100 award for automotive emissions control in 2001 given by R&D Magazine for the most technologically significant new innovations of the year.
Jun Liu
Liu is a Laboratory Fellow and the division director for energy processes and materials research at PNNL. He also serves as the director of the DOE Battery500 Consortium. He was recognized "for significant and sustained contribution to nanostructured materials, and their applications in energy, environments and health, and for his leadership role in developing and commercializing large-scale energy storage technologies." He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Materials Research Society and has received two R&D 100 awards. He was among the top one percent of authors cited by other researchers worldwide in 2014 and 2015, and was one of the most-cited materials scientists in the world. He was named the Battelle Distinguished Inventor in 2007 and the PNNL Inventor of the Year in 2013.