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Prof. Jay Whitacre is an assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University

Brief Biography

Dr. Whitacre earned a BA in Physics from Oberlin College in 1994, followed by a Masters (1997) and Ph.D. (1999) in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, where his doctoral work was focused on thin film and surface preparation and characterization. He was then a Postdoctoral Scholar at The California Institute of Technology (at JPL) from 1999 to 2000, where he worked to characterize and optimize the performance of thin film solid-state electrochemical devices. He subsequently accepted a technical staff position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was promoted to Senior Member Technical Staff in 2003. His work at JPL was focused on developing materials system for energy storage technologies. During this time, he was also trained as a systems engineer and became a member of several mission design groups as well as the Mars Science Laboratory development team. Dr. Whitacre became an assistant professor at CMU in fall 2007.

Professor Whitacre examines the materials science of synthesizing, characterizing, and implementing promising materials and device architectures for energy storage and generation technologies such as Li-ion batteries, fuel cells, and photovoltaics. He will concurrently be addressing the policy implications involved with selecting and implementing these renewable technologies. Other research topics include hybrid power systems for distributed and mobile platforms, high throughput materials selection methods, and ultra fast laser modification of materials for solid-state electrochemical devices.

Dr. Whitacre holds 5 patents (granted or pending), has authored or co-authored over 20 peer-review journal articles, and has received several awards in his career that include: the MRS Graduate Research Award, fall 1998 (silver medal); 1999 University of Michigan Departmental Graduate Student Research Award, 1999 American Vacuum Society Graduate Research Award (Thin Films Division), the 2001 Norman Hackerman Young Author Award (Electrochemical Society), and multiple JPL and NASA Space Act R&D Awards from 2002 to 2006.

Contact Information

Jay Whitacre
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Wean Hall 4323
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Email: whitacre@andrew.cmu.edu
Phone: (412) 268-5548
Fax: (412) 268-7596
Home Page: http://neon.mems.cmu.edu/whitacre/whitacre.html