Dixit receives 2023 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award

Newswise — Marm Dixit, a Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has received the 2023 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award.

The biannual award recognizes scientific or technical accomplishments by a young researcher utilizing the Advanced Photon Source, or APS, a DOE Office of Science user facility located at Argonne National Laboratory. The APS provides ultra-bright, high-energy X-ray beams generated by a circular particle accelerator for use in research across scientific disciplines.

The award honors Dixit’s body of work at the APS, which began prior to his role as a visiting student with the facility’s Material Physics and Engineering group in 2020. He worked closely with beamline scientists on developing and implementing advanced diffraction-based imaging methods for solid-state batteries, which use solid electrolytes instead of liquid ones. His research dived into the characterization challenges unique to these batteries and helped provide influential contributions and foundational knowledge in the field.

"I am thrilled, ecstatic and deeply humbled in equal measures on receiving the Rosalind Franklin Award from APS,” said Dixit, who joined ORNL’s Emerging and Solid-State Batteries group in 2021 and has continued to pursue research in the beamlines since. “My sincerest thanks to everyone involved in all my beamtimes that helped to make this happen. Every day I spent on the floor at APS, I learned something I had never known before."

Over the course of his early career, Dixit already has 22 first author publications (45 total), four book chapter publications and 10 patents (either granted or filed). His work has been integral in a range of fields including batteries, energy conversion, water desalination, synchrotron science and manufacturing. In addition, Dixit has made exceptional scientific contributions in the field of in situ and operando X-ray characterization of materials.

“Marm exemplifies the scientists who are pushing the frontiers of knowledge to unveil the fundamental understanding of solid-state battery science,” said Ilias Belharouak, head of ORNL’s electrification section.

At ORNL, Dixit is developing processing pathways to holistically manufacture fully functional solid-state batteries rather than focusing only on individual components. Last year, ORNL won an R&D 100 Award for a tool he created called SolidPAC, short for Solid-State Battery Performance Analyzer and Calculator. Researchers can download the open-source software to virtually test different battery configurations and identify which are worth pursuing.

The Rosalind Franklin award, given by the APS user organization, is named for a chemist who played a critical but largely unacknowledged role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

“This award validates the outstanding accomplishments of Marm as a rising star in advancing our nation’s energy storage capabilities,” said Rick Raines, director of the Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division at ORNL.

Dixit received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University and his bachelor’s degree in technology from Charotar University of Science and Technology. His previous fellowships and awards include the Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship for Projects in Green Energy Technology from the Electrochemical Society in 2021.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.