Next-generation battery expert Zhou Jianbin leaves US for China amid global race

In a move that indicates a potential shift in the global race for solid-state battery innovation and talent, a leading battery scientist with extensive academic and industry experience in the US has returned to a Chinese university to further his work on next-generation technologies.

Zhou Jianbin earned his PhD at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2017 before working as a researcher at USTC and then in the United States at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of California, San Diego.

He spent 16 months at Sonocharge Energy, a battery start-up in the US private sector, before returning to China in March as a special professor at USTC.

During his postdoctoral studies in 2017, Zhou was one of only 300 recipients nationwide of China’s Postdoctoral Innovative Talent Support Programme, which recognised promising early-career scientists.

Zhou’s research focuses on the design and development of electrode materials and electrolytes for high-performance solid-state metal batteries, as well as exploring the application of novel electrochemical materials in fields such as catalysis and biomedicine.

His notable achievements include work on lithium-sulphur and sodium-ion battery materials and the development of high-capacity energy storage devices.

Zhou has an extensive publication record in top-tier international academic journals, with more than 20 papers published in publications such as Nature, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Joule, Chem, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials and Advanced Functional Materials.

  

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