EMSD Quarterly Newsletter – Q3 2025

Dear members of EMSD,

We are excited to share our division’s fourth quarterly newsletter for the third quarter of 2025. If you missed our previous letters, you can find them here:

• The first newsletter: https://ceramics.org/acers-spotlight/emsd-quarterly-newsletter-q4-2024/
• The second newsletter: https://ceramics.org/acers-spotlight/emsd-quarterly-newsletter-q1-2025/
• The third newsletter: https://ceramics.org/acers-spotlight/emsd-quarterly-newsletter-q2-2025/

In this letter, we would like to provide you with the updates about:

1. Our division’s new Society Fellow – Professor Armin Feldhoff.
2. Selection results of the D. T. Rankin Award – Rishabh Kundu.
3. Selection results of the Outstanding Student Researcher (OSR) Award – Wonjoon Suk.
4. Selection results of the Student Stipends – Ellena Gemmen and Oriyomi Opetubo.
5. Our division’s Annual General Business Meeting at MS&T25.
6. Our division’s new leaders and teams.
7. Where to find EMSD at MS&T25?
8. EMSD at ACerS Spring Meeting 2026.

During the third quarter of 2025, the division has developed in the following aspects:

1. Professor Armin Feldhoff is elevated to the Society Fellow!

• We would like to express our sincere congratulations to Professor Armin Feldhoff, who has been selected for elevation to the grade of Fellow of ACerS.
• Professor Feldhoff is Extraordinary Professor of Leibniz University Hannover, and he is also the founding chair of EMSD.
• Over the past years, Professor Feldhoff has been dedicated to developing our division. For his outstanding service, Professor Feldhoff was awarded the division’s D.T. Rankin Award in 2022.
• The achievement of elevation to Society Fellow will be recognized at the ACerS Honors and Awards Banquet during the Society’s 127^th Annual Meeting in Columbus, OH on Monday, September 25, 2025. If you are attending MS&T25, let’s gather there and give our warmest wishes to Professor Feldhoff!

2. Rishabh Kundu is our division’s 2025 D. T. Rankin Awardee!

• On May 9, 2025, the subcommittee initiated the process of selecting the D. T. Rankin awardee for the 2025 conferment. According to our division rules, the current division Chair invited one of the previous awardees, the immediate past chair, and the current Vice-Chair to form the D. T. Rankin Award subcommittee.
• Rishabh Kundu has been selected by the subcommittee to receive the 2025 D. T. Rankin Award.
• Kundu obtained his bachelor’s degree in India and master’s degree from TU Darmstadt, Germany. He is currently a PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Kundu started to get involved in EMSD’s activities shortly after the division was established, and has remained active since then, for example, in the online communities, at MCARE, and in the EMSD logo contest. Due to his exemplary service to the division, Kundu is highlighted as an ACerS Spotlight Volunteer. He was also recognized as an ACerS Global Ambassador in 2022.
• Despite Kundu’s relatively early career stage, the subcommittee believes that he qualifies to be a D. T. Rankin awardee, given his exemplary service to activities that are in the scope of the division. Awarding an early-career researcher is also in line with the division’s intention to support young researchers.
• Kundu has accepted the award, and he will receive the award in person at 8:00 AM on September 29, 2025, at MS&T25 in Room B235 (Session Energy Materials for Sustainable Development: Thermoelectrics I). Congratulations, Rishabh!

3. Wonjoon Suk won the 2025 OSR Award!

• The division’s Outstanding Student Researcher (OSR) Award recognizes exemplary student research related to the mission of the EMSD. To qualify, a U.S. or international graduate or undergraduate student, who is actively engaged in research related to EMSD, must also present at the division’s annual conference (MS&T25 for 2025).
• The OSR Award subcommittee received seven high-quality nominations. After reviewing the submitted documents of all the nominees, the subcommittee decided to give the 2025 OSR Award to Wonjoon Suk.
• Suk is a PhD candidate at University of Michigan. Since 2024, Suk has been focusing on single-particle electrochemistry of Li-ion batteries, specifically the layered oxide cathodes. His research developed and used microelectrode arrays to enable electrochemical cycling of individual battery particles.
• Suk has accepted the award. EMSD will provide him with travel support for up to 1000 USD for attending MS&T25. Also, Suk will receive the award in person at our division’s Annual General Business Meeting at MS&T25 that is scheduled for 5:30–6:30 PM on September 29, 2025, in Room B231. Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting.
• As a recognition, Suk will also deliver an invited talk at 9:30 AM on September 30, 2025, at MS&T25 in Room B234 (Session Energy Materials for Sustainable Development: Battery and Storage III). Congratulations, Wonjoon!

4. Ellena Gemmen and Oriyomi Opetubo are the division’s 2025 Student Stipend winners!

• As mentioned in our last newsletter, we have provided student travel support to five early‑career participants at PACRIM16 & GOMD2025, 2150 USD in total.
• We are continuing this effort at MS&T25. For this reason, the subcommittee of EMSD Student Stipend has awarded 1000 USD to Ellena Gemmen and Oriyomi Opetubo (500 USD each) for presenting at MS&T25.
• Gemmen is a PhD candidate at West Virginia University, WV.
• Opetubo is a PhD candidate at Clemson University, SC.
• Congratulations to Ellena and Oriyomi!

5. EMSD Annual General Business Meeting at MS&T25

• Come to meet us at 5:30-6:30 PM on Monday, September 29, 2025, at MS&T in Room B231.
• During the meeting, we will confer the OSR Award (see above), review the division’s activities during the past year, and pass the division’s leadership to the next term’s office (see point 6 below).
• In addition, we will host a joint reception together with the Electronics Division. However, due to limited financial capacity and space, we can only extend this invitation to our plenary and invited speakers, awardees, symposium organizers, and current and previous leaders and teams. We aim to host such a reception every year, and we believe we will meet you there in the future! Nevertheless, you can easily find and talk to us at every corner of MS&T. Please refer to point 7 below for details.

6. EMSD office 2025–2026

• Chair: Charmayne Lonergan (Missouri University of Science and Technology)
• Vice-Chair: Joshua Tong (Clemson University)
• Secretary: Sepideh Akhbarifar (The Catholic University of America)
• Program Committee Chair: Kai He (University of California, Irvine)
• ACerS Board of Directors Division Liaison: Alexandra Navrotsky (Arizona State University)
• Member Engagement Subcommittee Representative: Marissa Reigel (Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics)
• President’s Council of Student Advisors Delegates: Hugh Smith (MIT); Graciela Martinez De la Rosa (Saltillo Institute of Technology); Jordan Sweeney (Colorado School of Mines)
• YPN Division Liaison: Alessandro De Zanet (Leonardo Labs)

7. Find us at MS&T25!

• EMSD is organizing two symposia: (1) Energy Materials for Sustainable Development; (2) Ceramic Materials for Nuclear Energy System.
• Our symposia span across the three full days of MS&T in Rooms B234 and B235.
• Also, find our division’s posters at the Poster Session at 5:00PM on Tuesday, September 30, 2025.
• As a highlight of our symposia, we will have Professor Takao Mori from National Institute for Materials Science, Japan to give the Keynote talk at 8:20AM on Monday, September 29, 2025, in Room B235.
• We will also have 33 invited talks in the many different sessions at our symposia.
• We look forward to meeting you at MS&T!

8. EMSD symposia at the ACerS Spring Meeting 2026, April 12–16, 2026, Bellevue, Washington

• If you will miss MS&T25, don’t worry! We will look forward to seeing you at the first ACerS Spring Meeting!
• At ACerS Spring Meeting 2026, three symposia are solely sponsored by the EMSD:
  • Symposium 32 – Solid Oxide Cells for Sustainable Energy
  • Symposium 33 – Advances in Thermoelectrics: Bridging Theory and Applications
  • Symposium 34 – Advances and Current Challenges in Solid-State Battery Technologies
• EMSD is also co-sponsoring five symposia with other divisions:
  • Symposium 1 – Emerging Frontiers in Glasses and Ceramics
  • Symposium 2 – Outreach and Engagement: STE(A)M Outreach, Education, Engagement and Retention
  • Symposium 3 – Sustainable Horizons: A Recurring Symposium on Collective Action for a Resilient Future
  • Symposium 15 – Ceramic and Composite Materials and Systems for a Sustainable and Resilient Energy Future
  • Symposium 19 – Glass and Interactions with its Environment – Fundamentals and Applicaitons
• The call for abstracts and more information can be found at https://ceramics.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SpringMeeting26-CFP_FINAL-1.pdf. Submit your abstract via https://springmeeting2026.abstractcentral.com!

We wish you a wonderful spring or autumn ahead!

Yang Bai, on behalf of the EMSD executive committee