Doron Aurbach (; born 3 September 1952) is an Israeli electrochemist, materials and surface scientist.
Biography Doron AurbachDoron Aurbach, Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University was born in 1952 in Israel to parents who survived the Holocaust and fought the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, grew up in Ramat Gan and studied in Blich High School. He served in Sayeret Golani reconnaissance unit, a.k.a. 631st Reconnaissance Battalion, (an Israeli special force unit) and fought west to the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War (1973). Later he returned to Golani Brigade as a deputy commander of a combat support company, and was discharged from reserve duty with a rank of a Major (), at the age of 46, as a patrol officer in the Armored Corps.
He is married to Sara, an educational counselor by training who writes children's books. They live in Bnei Brak and have seven children and dozens of grandchildren.
Academic career He obtained his BSc (1977), MSc (1979) and PhD (1983, summa cum laude) from the Chemistry Department at Bar-Ilan University (BIU). In parallel to his PhD degree, he completed a full degree in chemical engineering (1981) from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology). He was a postdoctoral fellow (1983-1985) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Cleveland Ohio, led by Professor Ernest B. Yeager.
In 1985 he joined the Chemistry Department at Bar-Ilan University and founded the electrochemistry group. Since October 1996 he is a full professor in the Chemistry Department and a Senate member at BIU. Between 2001 and 2005 he chaired the Chemistry Department and between 2010 and 2016 he chaired the Israel Labs Accreditation Authority. Aurbach is the Director of the Energy and Sustainable Center of Bar-Ilan University which he founded in 2021.Bar-Ilan’s National Institute for Sustainable Energy Aurbach's group belongs (together with other research groups from the US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, and Germany) to a network of excellence in the field of advanced materials for power sources, founded and supported by BASF. His group benefits from a long-term collaboration with General Motors, working together on advanced power sources for electro-mobility (electric vehicles). Aurbach manages a budget of more than 56 million NIS as a founder and a leader of the Israel National Research Center for Electrochemical Propulsion (INREP),Israel National Research Center for Electrochemical Propulsion website comprising 26 research groups from seven Israeli institutions supported by the Israel Council for Higher Education and the Prime-Minister's office. Aurbach is the head of the newly established center for Energy and Sustainability at Bar-Ilan University.Bar Ilan Center for Energy and Sustainability
Aurbach is a member of the small management team called IMLB LLC Ltd of the world organization of the advanced Li batteries community. Aurbach belongs to the international scientific board of the French Energy Network RS2ERS2E French research network on electromechanical energy storage and to the international scientific board of Daegu Institute of Technology (DGIST) in South Korea.
He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (ECS), Materials Research Society (MRS), the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), and a member in the European Academy of Science (since 2015). Aurbach serves (since 2003) as an Editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. During 2007 and 2015 he served also as a Senior Editor for the Journal of Solid-State Electrochemistry (Springer).Journal of Solid-State Electrochemistry (Springer) Among his students are Prof. Arie Zaban, President of Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Yair Ein-Eli,Dean of Materials Science and Engineering - Technion Dean of the faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion, and a number of other senior academic faculty members.
Scientific research The scope of Aurbach researchProf. Aurbach's Lab - Research Authority, Bar-Ilan University includes all aspects of nonaqueous electrochemistry, many kinds of batteries: Li, Li-ion, Na-ion, Mg, metal (Li, Al)-air, Li-sulfur and lead-acid systems, super and pseudocapacitors, and electrochemical water desalination. He pioneered the use of some of the most effective analytical (spectroscopic and microscopic) techniques for operando studies of the most reactive electrochemical systems (e.g. Li and Mg metal anodes in nonaqueous electrolyte solutions). In his research Aurbach was able to identify major surface reactions which lead to the passivation of active electrodes which compose rechargeable battery systems (Li, Li-C, Li-Si, lithiated transition metal oxides, Mg) in the relevant non-aqueous electrolyte solutions. His work promoted and developed important basic scientific topics which form the solid basis for the practical development of high energy density power sources. These included nonaqueous electrochemistry, active metals electrochemistry, understanding intercalation electrodes and the correlation between structure, morphology, surface chemistry and electrochemical performance of electrodes which are relevant to high energy density batteries. Prof. Aurbach also invented the field of rechargeable magnesium batteries, demonstrating working prototypes of rechargeable Mg batteries.
Awards Doron Aurbach has won several prizes, among them is the 2020 Israel Chemical Society (ICS) Gold Medal,The 2020 ICS Gold Medal the Eric and Sheila Samsom Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation in alternative fuels for Transportation (2018).The 2018 Samsom Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation in alternative fuels for TransportationMission of Israel to the UN in GenevaIsraeli, Finnish scientists win 1 mln USD for innovation in alternative fuels - Xinhua news His other awards include the Alexander Frumkin Medal of the International Society of ElectrochemistryFrumkin Memorial Medal - ISE (2018), Allen J. Bard Medal of the Electrochemical SocietyAllen J. Bard Award in Electrochemical Science (2017), Ernest B. Yeager award of the International Battery Association (IBA) for career-long achievements in power sources researchProf. winner of the 2014 Ernest B. Yeager Award, Bar-Ilan Spokesman office (2014), the Kolthoff prize of the Technion for excellence in chemical research (2013),Kolthoff annual prize the Research Award of the Battery Division of the Electrochemical Society (2013),ECS - Battery Division Research Award the Israel Chemical Society Prize of Excellence (2012),The ICS Prize for the Outstanding Scientist the Landau Prize for Green Chemistry (2011),Landau Prize Awarded to Three Bar-Ilan University Faculty Members the Edwards Company Prize of the Israel Vacuum Society for Research Excellence (2007)IVS - Israel Vacuum Society and the Technology Award of the Battery Division of the Electrochemical Society (2005).
Publications Aurbach has published more than 750 research papers in leading electrochemistry, materials science, and physical chemistry journals. These papers have been cited < 86200 times with h-index 143 (Google Scholar).Google Scholar - Doron Aurbach The statistics from the Web of Science are h-index 127, < 68000 citations (May 2022). During 2021 alone, he was cited nearly 8400 times (Web of Science); 9800 (Google Scholar).The 2016 List of Most Cited Researchers in Materials Science and Engineering by Elsevier Scopus Data3160 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles He belongs to the most cited scientists (top 1%) in 2018-2021 as published by the Web of Science and Clarivate analytics. Aurbach is in the list of the world's most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science.Highly Cited Researchers Powered by Web of Science According to Research.com, a platform that offers credible data on scientific contributions, Aurbach ranks 89th and 133rd on the list of the world's leading scientists in Chemistry and Material Science, respectively. He ranks 2nd in the list of leading scientists of Israel in both fields.Top Chemistry Scientists published by Research.com
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