Northwestern University

Professor Haile received her Bachelors of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Masters of Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She then returned to MIT to pursue her doctoral degree and carried out postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institut für Festkörperforschung (Institute for Solid State Research) in Stuttgart, Germany as a Humboldt Fellow. Professor Haile is currently the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, a position she assumed in 2015 after serving 18 years on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Haile's research broadly encompasses solid state ionic materials and devices, with particular focus on energy technologies. She has established a new class of fuel cells based on solid acid electrolytes and demonstrated record power densities for solid oxide fuel cells. Her more recent work on water and carbon dioxide dissociation for solar-fuel generation by thermochemical processes has created new avenues for harnessing sunlight to meet energy demands. She has published more than 160 articles and holds 12 patents on these and other topics.

She is the recipient of several awards, including in 2008 an American Competitiveness and Innovation (ACI) Fellowship from the National Science Foundation in recognition of “her timely and transformative research in the energy field and her dedication to inclusive mentoring, education and outreach across many levels,” the 2010 Chemical Pioneers Award of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the 2012 International Ceramics Prize for the World Academy of Ceramics. She was further named by Newsweek Magazine in 2007 as one of twelve people to watch in 2008.

Professor Haile a Fellow of the African Academy of Science and a co-founded the Joint US-Africa Materials Institute, a program that brings US and East African students together for collaborative research and education around the theme of materials for sustainable society. She is also a member of the National Materials Advisory Board, and a co-author of the National Academies study “America’s Energy Future: Electricity from Renewable Resources” published in 2009. She currently serves on the editorial boards for the journals Materials Horizons and Annual Reviews of Materials Research.