By Alaina O'Regan
July 14, 2025
Simon Ji will attend the summer 2025 National X-ray School at Argonne National Laboratory to learn advanced X-ray techniques for optimizing and designing more efficient and sustainable batteries.
Ji, a graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering, focuses on improving the performance and manufacturability for a new type of battery, called a solid-state battery, that shows promise in being more efficient and sustainable than today’s batteries. Ji said that understanding and optimizing exactly what’s happening inside of these batteries is challenging, as there are many different materials and tiny parts inside that interact in complicated ways. Ji specializes in using ultra-powerful X-ray machines to see and analyze the insides of batteries in order to optimize their design.
The National X-ray School is an intensive nine-day program for early career graduate students who want to learn advanced X-ray techniques for thesis work. It provides opportunities for graduate students to gain hands-on training in using specialized X-ray equipment to improve their research abilities, according to the organization. The program will feature lectures by experts from academia, industry and national laboratories and hands-on experiments at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab.
Ji holds bachelor’s degrees in astrophysics and engineering from Swarthmore College. He is advised by Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.