Yi Cui

From clean-energy storage to water purification, thermoregulation to air filtration, Professor Yi Cui, of Stanford University’s Materials Science and Engineering, has supported sustainability through science for more than 15 years. But his latest venture, LifeLabs, promises a new level of sustainability, energy efficiency, and long-lasting technology unlike any of his previous ventures. Director of Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy, with more than 500 research publications and 50 patent applications, Professor Yi is an expert in the fields of nanotechnology, materials science, energy, and wearable and environmental technology. His research contribution has been recognized with numerous awards including the Lawrence Award (one of the highest awards given by the US Department of Energy) and the Materials Research Society Medal (one of the highest awards in materials science).

Professor Yi was born in Guangxi, an autonomous region of China, in 1976, and earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Science & Technology of China. He completed his doctorate in physical chemistry at Harvard in 2002 and then became a Miller postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Professor Yi is Co-Director of the Battery 500 Consortium (funded by the US Department of Energy), a Co-Director of Stanford StorageX Initiative, and Co-Director of the Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium. The educator is also an entrepreneur, having founded the clean tech foundry EEnotech, Inc, Amprius, 4C Air, and EnerVenue, Inc. Professor Yi is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Materials Research Society, Electrochemical Society, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.