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Abstract: Sustainability refers to the capacity for the biosphere and human civilization to coexist. This presentation focuses on two central aspects of sustainability — reducing the environmental impact of human activity and improving the efficacy of human healthcare, where the development of advanced materials, mechanical engineering concepts and interface science play key roles. The first part of the talk focuses on high-energy-density Li-ion batteries, as a path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with vehicles and storing wind and solar power for a steady supply of electricity. Significant increases in the energy density of batteries require new materials and cell configurations. Lithium metal represents an attractive material for high-capacity anodes but with several challenges associated with its high reactivity and uncontrolled dendrite growth. Flexible, air-stable lithium-containing foils offer desirable properties for both alloy and pure-metal anodes, as alternatives to lithium metals in sulfur batteries. Interfacial materials with precise atomic compositions and tailored structures serve as the basis for lithium-containing anodes with environmental and electrochemical stability simultaneously. The second part of this talk introduces materials and device designs for bioresorbable medical implants that resorb completely and harmlessly in the body after a useful operating period, to eliminate the need for extraction surgeries. Here, a critical challenge is in the development of bio-interfaces that support stable function but then degrade in a controlled, biocompatible fashion with well-defined kinetics. Specific examples include wireless bioelectronic devices with the controlled operation and degradation time for therapeutic stimulation to accelerate neuroregeneration in damaged peripheral nerves and spinal cord, as “bioelectronic medicines” to complement or replace traditional pharmaceutical approaches.

Bio: Dr. Jie Zhao is currently a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. John A. Rogers at the Querrey-Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics at Northwestern University. Jie obtained her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University under the advice of Prof. Yi Cui. At Stanford, she developed expertise in energy conversion and storage technologies, as well as nanomaterials synthesis and characterization. At Northwestern, she expanded her skill set to materials and mechanics for soft electronics and biomedical systems. She has published nine first-author papers in high-profile journals, including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, JACS (two), and PNAS, and she has co-authored 30 papers, collectively with over 5500 citations. Her research on materials for energy storage was recognized as one of the U.S. DRIVE Highlights of Technical Accomplishments, 2015. She is the recipient of the MRS Graduate Student Award, 2017, and the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, 2017.