Sossina Haile received her B.S and Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and M.S, from the University of California, Berkeley. She has received the NSF National Young Investigator Award (1994-99), Humboldt Fellowship (1992-93), Fulbright Fellowship (1991-92), AT&T Cooperative Research Fellowship (1986-92). She is the recipient of the 1997 TMS Robert Lansing Hardy Award.
Sossina Haile's research centers on ionic conduction in solids, with the twin objectives of understanding the mechanisms that govern ion transport, and applying such an understanding to the development of advanced solid electrolytes and novel solid-state electrochemical devices. Technological applications of fast ion conductors include batteries, sensors, ion pumps and fuel cells. It is in this last area that Dr. Haile's work is expected to have the most impact.
Materials under investigation in Dr. Haile's group include proton-conducting perovskites, mixed oxygen- and electron-conducting perovskites, oxygen-conducting oxides, and proton-conducting solid acid compounds. Because ionic conductivity is closely tied to the crystal structure of and structural transitions in the conducting solid, crystal growth, structure determination by X-ray and neutron diffraction, and thermal analysis are important aspects of Dr. Haile's research. Using these techniques, her group has shown, for example, that the ordering transition in gadolinium zirconate from the fluorite to the pyrochlore structures is second order in nature and is accompanied by an increase in oxygen ion conductivity. In another example, her group has demonstrated that grain boundary transport in Gd-doped BaCeO3, a potential electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cells, cannot explain the high conductivity of this material, in contrast to speculations in the literature. Dr. Haile's work is supported by the National Science Foundation, via a National Young Investigator Award, and the Electric Power Research Institute.
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