Yang Shao-Horn
· ProfessorMassachusetts Institute of Technology · Materials Science & Engineering
Active 1997–2026
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About
Professor Yang Shao-Horn is the JR East Professor and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Her research focuses on materials for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical energy storage and conversion. She exploits physical and materials chemistries to understand and control the kinetics and dynamics involved in storing electrons, which is critical for enabling clean energy solutions and mitigating climate change. Her work involves developing universal design principles of materials to enhance their functions across various applications, including sustainable chemicals and fuels, as well as rechargeable lithium-ion and lithium-air batteries. Professor Shao-Horn received her BS in metallurgical and materials engineering from Beijing University of Technology in 1992 and her PhD in the same discipline from Michigan Technological University in 1998. Before joining MIT in 2002, she was a staff scientist at the Eveready Battery Company in Ohio, where she researched materials for different types of batteries. She also received a National Science Foundation International Research Fellowship to work with Claude Delmas at the Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry in Bordeaux, France. Outside her academic duties, she serves as a senior editor for Accounts of Materials Research of the American Chemical Society and participates on advisory and editorial boards for several leading journals. Her notable awards include the 2022 Hans Fischer…
Selected publications
Chemical Society Reviews · 2022 · 1738 citations
footprint. The viability of water electrolysis still hinges on the availability of durable earth-abundant electrocatalyst materials and the overall process efficiency. This review spans from the fundamentals of electrocatalytically initiated water splitting to the very latest scientific findings from university and institutional research, also covering specifications and special features of the current industrial processes and those processes currently being tested in large-scale applications. R…
Nature Energy · 2021 · 644 citations
Moving beyond 99.9% Coulombic efficiency for lithium anodes in liquid electrolytes
Nature Energy · 2021 · 510 citations
Lithium-ion intercalation by coupled ion-electron transfer
Science · 2025-10-02 · 37 citations
articleSenior authorCorrespondingThe underlying reaction mechanism in lithium-ion batteries remains poorly understood. We provide experimental and theoretical evidence that lithium intercalation occurs by coupled ion-electron transfer, where ion transfer across the electrode-electrolyte interface is facilitated by electron transfer to a neighboring redox site. Electrochemical measurements for a variety of common electrode and electrolyte materials reveal a universal dependence of the (de-)intercalation rate on Li + vacancy frac…
A multimodal robotic platform for multi-element electrocatalyst discovery
Nature · 2025-09-23 · 34 citations
article
Awards & honors
- 2022 Hans Fischer Senior Fellow, Technical University of Mun…
- 2020 Humboldt Research Award
- 2020 Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
- 2018 Faraday Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry
- 2018 Member, National Academy of Engineering
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