Tongchao Liu

Tongchao Liu, an assistant chemist in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory will receive the 2025 ENFL Emerging Researcher Award. His research focuses on energy storage materials and multiscale advanced characterization, with particular emphasis on lithium- and sodium-ion batteries. His areas of expertise include high energy cathodes, concentration gradient cathode designs, and probing degradation mechanisms using in-situ synchrotron-based X-ray techniques. Dr. Liu has an outstanding publication record at an early career stage, with over 140 peer-reviewed papers and more than 12,000 citations. His work has appeared in leading journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Energy, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Sustainability, Nature Communications, and JACS. He currently serves as an editor for Materials Today Energy. He was named to the MIT Technology Review's “35 Innovators Under 35” Global List (2023) and received several Young Scientist Awards. The award is being presented at the ACS Fall Meeting in Washington DC on August 18, 2025.