ANN ARBOR, Mich. (July 10, 2024) – The Electrochemical Society (ECS) has named Dr. Rana Mohtadi, a senior principal scientist at the Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRINA), a Fellow in its Class of 2024. Mohtadi is the first female from an automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to receive this prestigious honor. This is the second consecutive year that a Toyota researcher has been in ECS’ annual Fellow class.

“The ECS has been my home society since I was a graduate student where I looked up to the ECS Fellows as role models,” said Dr. Mohtadi. “I am deeply honored to receive this recognition and join other fellow scientists.”

The Fellow designation, established by ECS in 1989, recognizes advanced individual technological contributions in electrochemical and solid-state science and technology, in addition to honoring service to the Society. Honorees are selected by their peers. Out of the 400 ECS fellows, Dr. Mohtadi joins a distinguished list of about 40 women.

Dr. Mohtadi has conducted pioneering research in battery chemistry. Her groundbreaking work on the design and demonstration of high value materials for use in chemical and electrochemical energy storage technologies has set a new trend of electrolytes research in multivalent batteries. The liquid and solid-state electrolyte materials she developed for mono and multivalent beyond Li-ion batteries were subject of handovers for consideration in practical applications. Additionally, she has pursued sustainable batteries through chemistries thought to have less environmental impact and developed hydrogen storage materials with fuel cells.

Dr. Mohtadi also serves as a Principal Investigator for the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) at Tohoku University in Japan. She received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina and holds 36 patents in her fields.

“This is an incredible honor for Rana, but also recognition to Toyota for two consecutive years, demonstrating the prowess we have in battery technology,” said Jeff Makarewicz, Group Vice President of Technical Research & Resources at Toyota Motor North America R&D. “Rana is a very prominent scientist in battery development, and we are extremely proud to have her expertise on our team.”

The ECS announcement, which includes profiles of all 13 honorees in the 2024 class can be found here.