Paul Fenter

Paul Fenter is a senior physicist, Argonne Distinguished Fellow, and leader for Interfacial Processes Group, in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the former director of the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science (CEES), a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center.

Education and Career Overview Fenter holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of science degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He did his postdoctoral studies at Princeton University then joined Argonne in 1997 as a physicist. Fenter became director of the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science in 2014. Fenter is also an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago the complex behavior of ions at charged solid-liquid interfaces (e.g., including the coexistence of multiple discrete ion adsorption states), and the role of interfacial reactivity in controlling lithium-ion battery conversion reactions. Fenter also specializes in development of novel X-ray-based techniques to understand the structure and reactivity at liquid-solid interfaces.

As the director of CEES, Fenter led a multi-institutional research program (with partners at Northwestern University, University of Illinois and Purdue University) that studied the chemical reactions that limit the lifetime and safety of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This included studies of the interface between electrodes and the electrolytes, and approaches to stabilize the electrode-electrolyte interface. CEES also explored novel "beyond lithium ion insertion" chemistries that can lead to substantial increases in the energy storage capacity of LIBs.

For his contributions, Fenter was awarded the 2012 Bertram E. Warren Diffraction Physics Award from the American Crystallographic Association and The University of Chicago's Board of Governors Distinguished Performance Award in 2018. He was also named a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2008 and is a member of the American Chemical Society, and Geochemical Society. and the arrangement of ions at charged mineral-water interfaces and X-ray standing waves ). These capabilities enabled new insights into ion adsorption structures, and been also applied to studies of mineral-water dynamics. He also invented a novel X-ray microscope that can image sub-nanometer high interfacial topography and dissolution dynamics. Most recently, he has demonstrated a new general solution to the phase problem for the case of coherently illuminated atomistic structures.

Honors Argonne Distinguished Fellow, 2023 Board of University of Chicago's Governors' Distinguished Performance Award, 2018 Bertram E. Warren Diffraction Physics Award from the American Crystallographic Association, 2012 Named Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2008