Vibha Kalra
Cornell Engineering / Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (PROF)
Vibha Kalra is the Fred H. Rhodes Professor in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. At Cornell Atkinson, she serves as the Kathy Dwyer Marble and Curt Marble Faculty Director and leads the area of Accelerating Energy Transitions.
Kalra’s research focuses on next-generation energy storage solutions with a particular focus on batteries for applications ranging from portable electronics, to electric vehicles, to grid storage. Driven by real impact on technology and society, Kalra has built her research program to encompass the soups to nuts of the fundamentals to applied research, creating successful partnerships and navigating the interface between academia and industry. Her lab has been featured or quoted in 40 news stories since 2016, including NPR, NBC News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, IEEE Spectrum, and Materials Today; and a number of international media outlets in Asia, Europe and Australia attesting to the broader impact her work is creating. Kalra’s specific research thrusts include the design and manufacturing of new battery materials, in-operando and postmortem characterizations to elucidate fundamental mechanisms that drive energy storage, and device-level assembly and testing. Additionally, her group is developing recycling and regeneration strategies to create a circular battery economy for a truly positive impact on our climate.