Vanessa Wood

Vanessa Claire Wood (born 25 February 1983) is an American engineer who is a professor at the ETH Zurich. She holds a chair in Materials and Device Engineering and serves as Vice President of Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations.

Early life and education Wood earned her bachelor's degree in physics at Yale University. She moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her graduate studies, where she studied electrical engineering. She remained at MIT for graduate research, where she researched the use of metal oxides as transport layers in quantum-dot light-emitting diodes with Vladimir Bulovic. Her research developed strategies to integrate colloidal quantum dots in optoelectronic devices. She created three LEDs where air-stable metal oxides were used to surround the quantum dot active layers. She was awarded a European Research Council starting grant to develop quantitative metrologie to guide lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

Wood founded the spin-off company Battrion in 2015. Battrion looks to improve charging speed of high energy density lithium ion cells through the development of innovative fabrication strategies. She was made full Professor in 2019.

In 2021, Wood was made the Vice President for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations at ETH Zurich. She was appointed Meeting Chair of the Materials Research Society 2022 Spring Meeting.

Awards and honors 2014 BASF Science Prize in Electrochemistry

Selected publications