Abstract
The development of nanotechnology in the past two decades has generated great capability of controlling materials at the nanometer scale and has enabled exciting opportunities to design materials with desirable photonic, electronic, ionic and mechanical properties, which are important for advanced energy conversion and storage. In this talk, I will show how we develop chemistry, physics and materials principles for designing rationally nanostructured materials for energy applications. Examples include: 1) Nanocone and hollow nanospheres for advanced photon management in solar cells. 2) High charge capacity nanostructured Si anodes and S cathodes for high-energy lithium ion batteries. 3) Novel low-cost and high-power nanomaterials for grid scale energy storage.

Yi Cui Biography
Yi Cui went to University of Science and Technology of China, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 1998. He attended graduate school from 1998 to 2002 at Harvard University, where he worked under supervision of Professor Charles M. Lieber. After that, he went on to work as a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Paul Alivisatos at University of California, Berkeley. In 2005 he became an Assistant Professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. In 2010 he was promoted to an Associate Professor with tenure and named as David Filo and Jerry Yang Faculty Scholar. His current research is on nanomaterials for energy storage, photovotalics, topological insulators, biology and environment.

Yi Cui is an Associate Editor of Nano Letters. He is a co-director of the Bay Area Photovoltaics Consortium, which is funded with $25M by the US Department of Energy. He has founded Amprius Inc., a company to commercialize the high-energy battery technology. He has received the Wilson Prize (2011), the David Filo and Jerry Yang Faculty Scholar (2010), the Sloan Research Fellowship (2010), the Global Climate and Energy Project Distinguished Lecturer (2009), KAUST Investigator Award (2008), ONR Young Investigator Award (2008), MDV Innovators Award (2007), Terman Fellowship (2005), the Technology Review World Top Young Innovator Award (2004), Miller Research Fellowship (2003), Distinguished Graduate Student Award in Nanotechnology (Foresight Institute, 2002), Gold Medal of Graduate Student Award (Material Research Society, 2001).