Alan C. West is the Samuel Ruben-Peter G. Viele Professor of Electrochemistry in the Department of Chemical Engineering; he has a joint appointment in its Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California and his BS from Case Western Reserve University. He has served three terms as Chair of Chemical Engineering, and is an author of an introductory textbook for engineering applications of electrochemistry, the underlying discipline behind batteries and fuel cells. He is the co-director of the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center (CEEC), which is focused on accelerating the adoption of electrochemical energy storage for humanity. The CEEC focuses on batteries, fuel cells, and electrolyzers as key technologies to allow electrification of transportation and for large-scale integration of renewables onto the electrical grid. The CEEC is a multi-disciplinary collaboration, with interests ranging from the discovery of new materials for next-generation batteries to system safety and integration to understanding the impacts of policy on emerging markets. Professor West’s research interests lie in theoretical and experimental fundamentals, with applications including the design of electrode architectures, numerical simulation, and battery diagnostics.
