Roadmap article written by women scientists and engineers recognizes women in 15 sub-disciplines
Olga Marina.
(Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Olga Marina, chief scientist and hydrogen expert at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), has been named among the pioneering women in applied physics.
Marina and her peers were celebrated in a roadmap, published in Journal of Physics D, that was written by women scientists and engineers. The intent was to celebrate contributions made by women across 15 sub-disciplines that represent current interests within the applied physics community.
Marina was lauded for her research in fuel cells in Section 12 of the roadmap, specifically for her role in developing advanced solid oxide fuel cell materials and her dedication to understanding mechanisms that degrade these materials.
She is recognized along with other female fuel cell researchers who hail from institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ballard Power Systems, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Argonne and Oak Ridge national laboratories, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, among others.
“Lowering the operating temperature (of fuel cells) without compromising performance is one of the topics that women pioneers have challenged and contributed to substantially,” the authors of the paper’s fuel cell section conclude. “There are now many more women researchers in the fuel cell field, especially in the last several years. They will become leaders in the field in the next decade.”
Other fields featured in the roadmap include plasma materials processing, super-resolution microscopy, bioelectronics, catalysis and surface science, and more.
Beyond recognition in the pioneering women roadmap, Marina was recently tapped to serve—along with 10 other national and international hydrogen and fuel cell experts—on the Scientific Committee for the 2023 International Conference on Electrolysis. The conference will be held August 27 – September 1, 2023, in Sun City, South Africa.
This is the second time Marina has been tapped to serve on the Scientific Committee; she also contributed to the committee for the 2021 conference.
Her contributions to hydrogen and fuel cell research are vast. Marina leads the high-temperature electrolyzer testing and characterization efforts for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) H2NEW consortium, which is devoted to improving electrolyzer device efficiency and durability as well as reducing costs.
She was appointed in 2021 to the board of the Gen IV International Forum’s Very-High-Temperature Reactor organization, where she is serving a 10-year term.
Also in 2021, Marina was part of a team recognized by DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office for investigating and developing hydrogen production technologies.
Marina is also an associated editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, where she supervises manuscripts about solid oxide fuel and electrolysis cells. She is an adjoint professor at nearby Washington State University.
Published: March 31, 2023