Biography

Martin Z. Bazant received both the B.S. degree in mathematics and physics (1992) and the M.S. degree in applied mathematics (1993) from the University of Arizona. He completed the Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Harvard University in 1997, under the direction of Efthimios Kaxiras. He continued at Harvard with a postdoctoral fellowship, 1997-98, before coming to MIT as instructor in applied mathematics and postdoctoral associate, 1998-99. Bazant, who arrived at MIT in 1998, is pursuing some of the most challenging problems at the intersection of energy, environment, and sustainability. His recent research has yielded a fundamentally new way to purify salty or contaminated water using an electrical shockwave. He is also investigating the potential of using room temperature ionic liquids (mixtures in which electrically charged molecules themselves comprise a liquid) for battery storage. Bazant’s research interests and accomplishments are all the more remarkable given the fact that he never took chemistry classes past high school. “I’m an oddball, self-taught in every field,” Bazant says. “I follow my curiosity, which is the best way to do innovative research.” His career evolved through different disciplines, to the point, he says “where the topics of my research and teaching are far removed from my training and education.” With a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in physics from Harvard University, Bazant taught applied mathematics for his first decade at MIT. Around 2001, a singular experience turned his attention toward engineering. “I was doing a pencil-and-paper calculation of fluid flows around a metal sphere in an electric field,” he recalls. “It turned out to be an interesting problem that hadn’t been studied much at the time.” Together with a graduate student, Bazant began tailoring what he calls a “mathematical exercise” to the harnessing of flows in microfluidics, work that had immediate application to controlling fluid flow in small-scale “lab on a chip” devices. Bazant eventually filed patents in fluid mechanics, and with student and faculty colleagues, developed products for the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology. In 2008, Bazant moved over to the Department of Chemical Engineering, which felt like a more natural home given his expanding interest in conducting research leading to real-world applications. His laboratory supports both theoretical and experimental research, which allows him both to pose basic questions and test hypotheses about the behaviors of particles and chemicals in electrochemical systems. Among Bazant’s current problems, which focus on electric fields and flows, is understanding phase transformations in lithium ion and lithium metal batteries, and learning how to control the movement of ions in the service of more efficient battery storage. “Lithium metal is the ultimate anode material,” says Bazant. “You can’t have a higher energy density than that.” He is also scaling up his novel water purification system, which harnesses an electric shock wave to drive a current through a flowing stream, separating salty or contaminated water from liquid that is clean and potable. With concern for the world’s limited supply of clean water, Bazant hopes to commercialize the system in a few years.