Amy Lucia Prieto

Amy Prieto is a Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University and the Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Prieto Battery.

Education and early career Prieto received her Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and philosophy from Williams College in 1996. There, she undertook an honors thesis entitled "The Synthesis and Characterization of Precursors to Zirconium-Containing Liquid Crystals" under the mentorship of Lee Young Park. Before beginning her doctoral work, she was a summer research fellow at Bell Labs, which she credits with fostering an appreciation for cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Following her PhD, she began a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, working in the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center in Hongkun Park's research group, where she studied and characterized the electronic properties of single molecules and nanoparticles. The company is geared towards developing and commercializing a rechargeable battery that will last longer, charge faster, and be free of toxic or flammable materials that make up traditional batteries. By 2014, Prieto and collaborators had created a small pilot production line in her laboratory at CSU to demonstrate their viability to larger investors.

Unlike traditional batteries, Prieto's battery is solid-state, meaning the battery uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, rather than liquid or polymer gel electrolytes. The battery makes use of a three-dimensional copper foam that undergoes a coating process through two electroplating steps: one to create a positively charged electrode (anode made of copper antimonide) and one to create the negatively-charged electrode (cathode). and reducing charging times. This makes Prieto's battery charge faster and store more energy than lithium-ion batteries. The batteries are lightweight, flexible, use non-toxic materials, can come in a variety of shapes, and do not overheat or catch fire. National Science Foundation CAREER Awards, 2010 L'Oréal USA for Women in Science Fellowship, 2004 Fellow, Sigma Xi, 1996

Selected publications

MS Sander, AL Prieto, R Gronsky, T Sands, AM Stacy (2002) Fabrication of High-Density, High Aspect Ratio, Large-Area Bismuth Telluride Nanowire Arrays by Electrodeposition into Porous Anodic Alumina Templates. Advanced Materials. 14 (9), 665–667.