Newswise — A select group of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has been honored as fellows of the American Physical Society and the Electrochemical Society. Physicists Kawtar Hafidi and Michael Carpenter have been appointed as American Physical Society fellows and Materials Scientist Khalil Amine and Chemist Chris Johnson have been elected as Electrochemical Society fellows.
The American Physical Society, which has more than 53,000 members globally, awards their annual honor based on a scientist’s exceptional physics-related research, applications, leadership, service or educational involvement. And for 28 years, the Electrochemical Society has honored its fellows for scientific accomplishments, leadership and engagement.
“Kawtar, Michael, Khalil and Chris are exceptionally talented and driven researchers whose significant achievements inspire their peers as well as younger generations of physicists and chemists,” said Harry Weerts, Argonne Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering.
Kawtar Hafidi
Hafidi, an experimental nuclear physicist and the director of Argonne’s Physics Division, earned the American Physical Society recognition for her unique combination of scholarship, service and outreach within her field.
Hafidi was nominated for leading experimental programs using high-energy probes on nuclei to examine quantum chromodynamics at DESY laboratory (HERMES) and DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The society also stressed Hafidi’s devotion to hadronic physics and her extensive mentoring to early career physicists and students.
Prior to her appointment as Argonne’s Physics director, Hafidi held leadership and fundamental research roles at Argonne and several prominent accelerator facilities. Most recently, Hafidi was Argonne’s Associate Chief Scientist for Laboratory-Directed Research & Development (LDRD).
Michael Carpenter
Carpenter, an experimental physicist and group leader in Argonne’s Physics Division, received American Physical Society fellowship for advancing experimental physics of nuclear structures in many areas. Some of Carpenter’s achievements, noted by the society, include:
- Helping to discover and characterize the highly elongated, superdeformed shapes that nuclei can have at high-angular momentum in several isotopes of mercury (Hg)
- Investigating heavy nuclei in the periodic table’s actinide series of elements that induce special correlations generated when specific pairs of protons or neutrons interact to form pair-shaped nuclei
- Observing and characterizing both spherical and deformed shapes in certain neutron-rich nuclei where this phenomenon was somewhat unexpected
Carpenter has served as a research physicist at Argonne for more than 25 years and currently oversees the laboratory’s Gammasphere detector array of high-purity germanium detectors.
Khalil Amine
Amine, a materials scientist and Argonne Distinguished Fellow, is one of 15 scientists and engineers chosen by the Electrochemical Society as 2017 fellows. Amine is also head of the Technology Development group in the Battery Technology Department within Argonne’s Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division.
Throughout a remarkable career spanning more than two decades, Amine has enabled many discoveries in electrical energy storage. These include high-energy and high-power cathode materials planned for next-generation batteries with the potential to power advanced electric vehicles globally.
Amine is among the top-cited researchers in materials science, according to Web of Science, and is an advisor to the U.S. National Research Consul on battery related technologies. He has secured more than 176 patents and patent applications and has won many scientific awards. In addition to his Electrochemical Society membership, Amine is a member of the Materials Research Society and the American Ceramic Society.
Chris Johnson
Johnson, a senior chemist and group leader at Argonne, is an internationally known scientist with more than 25 years of experience researching and developing chemical and electrochemical properties of battery materials and systems. Johnson specializes in an array of battery-related areas, including:
- Investigating cathode materials for lithium ion batteries, sodium ion batteries and polyvalent systems
- Discovering, designing and synthesizing battery materials — anodes, cathodes and electrolytes
- Characterizing physiochemical properties of materials with X-ray, neutron, electrochemistry and Raman spectroscopy techniques
- Leveraging nanoscience for batteries
Like Amine, Johnson, who holds 24 patents, joins a small group of 2017 fellows at the Electrochemical Society, an organization at which he chairs the Battery Division and has held membership since 1993.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.
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