(September 25, 2019) Dr. Linqin Mu, a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Feng Lin’s lab, has received the competitive Battery Division Postdoctoral Associate Research Award from the Electrochemical Society. The award comes with a $2,000 prize and an invited talk on a subject related to her significant contributions to the battery field. From a global pool of applicants, only two are selected each year. The award is sponsored by the MTI Corporation and the Jiang Family Foundation.

In the Lin lab, Linqin studies the fundamental scientific questions (e.g., chemmechanical breakdown, interfacial chemistry, metal dissolution, charge heterogeneity) of cathode materials towards rational design the cathode materials for safe, high energy density, long cycle life batteries. Before joining the department as a postdoctoral researcher, Linqin studied at Institute of Physics (IOP) at Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, receiving her Ph.D. in 2016. She originally started on a different track, earning her B.S. degree in Physics, before pivoting to chemistry after she discovered an intrinsic desire to study the mechanisms behind how batteries function. 

Next month, Linqin will give her talk at the Electrochemical Society’s 236th meeting in Atlanta, GA. Her talk, titled “Synchrotron Characterization to Inform Design for Cathode Materials in Li/Na Batteries”, will discuss the degradation mechanisms using advanced synchrony spectroscopy and imaging techniques, and how these techniques facilitate improvements to the material.

After her time at Virginia Tech, she would like to pursue a career in academia where she can continue her research on battery fundamentals.