BATTERY PIONEERS: ANN MARIE SASTRY the field is wonderful, a beautiful admixture of mathematics, kinetics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, optimization, and transport.” As her lab grew in reputation and recognition, Sastry and her students published prolifically, and her students successfully began their own laboratories, with many going on to leadership roles in industry and academia. Sastry was recognized with many of the top honous in her field, including the National Science Foundation Presidential Award (1997), the Frank Kreith Energy Award (2011) and Gustus L Larson Memorial Award (2007) from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the University of Michigan’s Henry Russel Award (1999) and Faculty Recognition Award (2005). In 2004, Sastry was appointed a fellow of ASME and she received the University of Delaware’s Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement. Chia-Wei Wang has collaborated with Sastry for nearly 20 years, first as her graduate student, and later as a colleague and Sakti3 co-founder. “Ann Marie founded two research centres, and one graduate-level programme when she was at the University of Michigan…these centres and programmes involved multi-discipline technologies, and professors and researchers from various departments. They all looked like impossible tasks at that time. However, she was able to pull them all through.” Among this busy life, she was very much involved in her family. Their first child, Katherine Rose Lastoskie, was born in 1997 and their son, Peter Christian Lastoskie, was born four years later. At 16, Katie joined Sakti3 as a materials characterization intern, and at 13, Peter worked on his competition robot in Sakti3’s machine shop. “The circle seemed complete,” says Sastry. Here was my daughter, analyzing materials and operating a scanning electron microscope, and here was my son, drilling holes and building a machine. Katie and Peter want to be engineers, and whether or not they change their minds, I know they’ll aim to make meaningful contributions, which is what my parents hoped for me.” Sastry’s laboratory would produce many future professors, and other successful professionals. As the efforts grew, Sastry began building organizations to support her work. Having written papers for a number
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Ann Marie founded two research centres, and one graduate-level programme when she was at the University of Michigan…these centres and programmes involved multi-discipline technologies, and professors and researchers from various departments. They all looked like impossible tasks at that time. However, she was able to pull them all through. of years on percolation theory, she saw this branch of mathematical modelling as a viable means of predicting critical volumes of sensors that would detect rare ionic species in cells, thereby providing a means to rationalize data provided by her colleague and centre co-founder, professor Martin Philbert. Sastry and Philbert would form a collaboration via a $2 million grant from the Keck foundation. The mathematics Sastry and her students developed would have profound implications for their work in battery technology. They explored not only the concentration, but also the shapes and sizes of particles in battery cells that would produce optimal performance. Sastry began to realize a new degree was needed to train students in the emerging fields of energy storage and renewables. The Energy Systems Engineering Graduate Programme at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind, was born, with Sastry as the founding director. Sastry grew the programme to over 150 students in just two years, and created a global network of students specializing in technologies ranging from batteries, to fuel cells, to wind power and even business considerations of the consequences of cleaner energy generation. “The programme started in 2007, when cleantech was really just getting on the engineering radar,” she says. “The enthusiasm, intelligence and motivation of the students were off the charts. And, we were fortunate to find a partner in Jim Queen, the global vice president for engineering at General Motors. GM announced the Volt programme in 2007, and it was clear that there were engineering skills gaps that needed to be filled. “GM, though Jim’s efforts, made ESE their flagship programme, retraining hundreds of engineers to work on EVs,” says Sastry. “We also formed a research centre that I led, the Advanced Battery Coalition for Drivetrains (GM/UM ABCD), with four
From elementary school to graduation: early steps on a road to academic fame and distinction
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