Ian McKay

A graduate of MIT, Ian pushes the limits on what batteries can do. “Earth-friendly power sources like wind or solar work only when the wind blows or the sun shines,” he says. “We need bigger and better batteries to store that elusive energy and make it available at any time so we can keep the lights on for 10 billion people without ruining the planet.”

Even before he achieved his MS degree, Ian had been lead author on seven patent applications and many peer-reviewed publications, which include the basis for two radically new energy storage systems currently undergoing integration in the Ford Focus electric vehicle and the U.S. Navy Remus-600 autonomous submarine. He is working on new energy storage chemistries and catalyst materials. Practical applications of such work could make batteries that enable next-generation transportation or exploration systems, and give more freedom to people dependent on medical implants.

“The Hertz Fellowship is amazing because it lets me choose the piece of the energy puzzle that I judge to be most important, and go all out on that one piece.”