Kelsey Hatzell, Vanderbilt University, will receive the Materials Research Society (MRS) Nelson “Buck” Robinson Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy, which recognizes a student, postdoc, or other early-career professional through five years following the highest degree attained for the development of novel sustainable solutions for the realization of renewable sources of energy.

Hatzell’s research group (Inks and Interfaces) works on multifunctional coatings and understanding phenomena at solid–liquid and solid–solid interfaces. The group works on an array of different applications related to solid-state batteries, electrochemical fuel production, printing, water desalination, and separations application. She is interested in understanding far-from-equilibrium materials systems and uses a suite of x-ray and neutron techniques to understand these systems.

Hatzell earned her BS/BA degrees in engineering/economics from Swarthmore College and her PhD degree in materials science and engineering from Drexel University. She is currently an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Vanderbilt University.

Hatzell was an ITRI-Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow. She received the Arthur Nowick Award and the Silver Graduate Student Award, both from MRS. Since joining Vanderbilt, she has won the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (2017), the NSF CAREER Award (2019), and The Electrochemical Society Toyota Young Investigator Award (2019). Hatzell was also named a SCIALOG Fellow in energy storage by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (2017–2019).

MRS acknowledges the generosity of Sophie Robinson for endowing this award in memory of her father, Nelson “Buck” Robinson.