Susan Babinec

Susan Jean Babinec is an American scientist. She is Program Lead for Stationary Storage within the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) at the Argonne National Laboratory. She looks to develop a future electric grid for the United States.

Biography Susan Babinec works as a leader for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to optimize the future of electrical grid energy storage. She served as a senior commercialization advisor for both transportation and energy storage at the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). Early in her career, she was awarded the Young Inventor of the Year by Dow Chemical Company. Babinec also holds about 45 patents for her inventions towards bettering energy storage and has authored and co-authored dozens of articles and book chapters.

Early life and education Babinec completed a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin. She later obtained a master's degree in physical science from Michigan State University. These degrees in physical science and chemistry gave Babinec the knowledge she needed for her future in pursuing electrochemistry and energy storage.

Research and career Babinec spent the first twenty years of her career at Dow Chemical Company, where she worked as a senior electrochemist. She was honored as Inventor of the Year, and the first woman corporate fellow. She co-invented a low-cost display technology that became a venture-funded start-up. She became frustrated by Dow's lack of investment in new technologies, and moved to A123, a company who were pursuing new battery materials. She looks to optimize energy storage capabilities by integrating grid design with industry needs. She launched the Battery Data Genome project, a challenge to collect, store and share usable information from every stage of the battery lifecycle. The Battery Data Genome Project looks to transform understanding about electric vehicles.

Selected publications

Personal life Babinec is married with two adult sons.