PNNL

Sergei Kalinin, a joint appointee with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Ji-Guang (Jason) Zhang, a Lab Fellow at PNNL, have been named 2024 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows. Kalinin and Zhang join researchers from 135 research universities, as well as governmental and nonprofit research institutions worldwide, honored this year. The Fellows will be inducted at the 14th NAI Annual Conference, held June 23–26, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia.

“The true measure of scientific research is the impact it has on life,” said Kalinin. “This does not mean that I am pursuing only immediate applications―very often the fundamental science of today leads to the technologies of 20–30 years from now. What drives me is the desire to build the next generation of tools that can accelerate real-world materials and physics discovery from the atomic and nanometer scales and up. This was also motivation for me to spend a year in Amazon’s moonshot project division and, after that, to join PNNL as a joint appointee. Now is the time for machine learning and artificial intelligence to cross the border from in silico to in materio. The nanometer scale may be where this transition can be initiated. I am looking forward to the opportunities to work with PNNL scientists to scale machine learning-enabled microscopy to close the materials discovery loop and enable the next era of materials and physics discovery.”

Zhang, who is internationally recognized and widely cited for his pioneering work in developing energy storage devices, said, “I am really honored to be selected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. This is not only a recognition for me, but also a recognition for the collaborative works with my colleagues in PNNL. Without their great contributions and support, I cannot accomplish these works. This recognition also encourages me to put more effort on the commercialization of our inventions, especially on using localized high-concentration electrolytes for energy storage systems and scaling up our new approach for silicon-based lithium ion batteries.”

The NAI highlights inventors holding patents in the United States, with a specific focus on academic technologies. Since its founding in 2010, the NAI has encouraged inventors to train an innovative, next-generation workforce and engage with the public to increase awareness of the societal benefits of inventions. NAI Fellows are academic inventors recognized for their “prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.”

Kalinin studies materials and their properties using advanced microscopy techniques. His 25 patents span from developing quantitative standards for electrostatic characterization by scanning probe microscopy 25 years ago to the development of quantitative band excitation scanning probe microscopy and electrochemical strain microscopy capable of probing electrochemical phenomena in volumes billions of times smaller than classical electrochemical methods. Kalinin is the recipient of numerous awards and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Materials Research Society, and the American Physical Society, among others.

Earlier this year, Zhang won the inaugural award from the NAI for Innovator of the Year. He is among a select group of PNNL researchers who earned a spot in the recently announced 2024 list of Highly Cited Researchers. Zhang, who holds 41 patents, is at the forefront of efforts to produce an electric vehicle battery that can pack more energy and last longer. He and colleagues at PNNL and throughout DOE are also working on batteries that are lighter, contain abundant and readily available materials, and are less expensive to produce.