Héctor Abruña, the Émile M. Chamot professor of chemistry & chemical biology, was recently awarded the Frumkin Memorial Medal from the International Society of Electrochemistry, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field.
He will receive the medal, which may be given once every two years, at the society’s annual meeting in August 2020 in Belgrade. The award honors the late Professor Alexander N. Frumkin, a Russian electrochemist credited with the fundamental theory of electrode reactions.
"It is truly humbling to be the recipient of the Frumkin memorial medal," Abruña said. "However, the real credit belongs to the graduate students, post-docs and other co-workers, whose great work, creativity and dedication for over 35 years made it possible."
Abruña’s interdisciplinary research focuses on ways to address problems of electrochemical interest. His most recent work involves fundamental studies of novel materials and architectures for batteries and fuel cells. His group uses standard electrochemical techniques in addition to X-ray and various electron microscopy methods as well as a variety of spectroscopic techniques.
His group also synthesizes novel, tailored inorganic and organic battery materials to drive discovery of new chemical and electrochemical properties.
Abruña, who also directs the Energy Materials Center at Cornell (EMC2), leads the DOE Center for Alkaline-Based Energy Solutions (CABES), part of the Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) program supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. CABES, dedicated to the development of advanced fuel cell technologies in alkaline media, was awarded a four-year, $10.75 million grant from the DOE Office of Science that started last August.
He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in May 2018.
