Na ZHANG
Project Manager
LISHEN (CHINA)

Snapshot: Working with joint venture automotive partner Coda on the design, engineering, and pack assembly for the battery system

Dr Zhang Na studied at the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology of Tianjin University, with a Ph. D of Applied Electrochemistry. From April 2006 Dr Zhang has been working at the Tianjin Lishen battery company and served as a power battery engineer and project manager for the EV/HEV battery group.

Sankar Das Gupta, Chairman and CEO, ELECTROVAYA (Canada)

Dr. Sankar Das Gupta is an internationally recognized scientist in electrochemistry. A co-founder of the Electrovaya, Dr. Das Gupta has more than 25 years experience in materials engineering and battery science. Electrovaya is a leader in portable power solutions with its proprietary Lithium Ion SuperPolymer® battery technology. It has over 150 patents issued or pending globally. Dr. Das Gupta received his doctorate from Imperial College, London and is a graduate of Presidency College, India. He serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toronto. He also serves as a corporate Ambassador for the Province of Ontario, is a Charter Founder member of TIE-Toronto and is a member on various other committees.

Changhua Wu, Director, The °Climate Group Greater China

Changhua Wu is The °Climate Group’s Greater China Director. Based in Beijing, she leads The °Climate Group’s operations and strategic development across the region. Before joining The °Climate Group, she was the Executive Director of China Operations of ENSR where she worked closely with multi-national corporations to support their business development in China and also their compliance with Chinese regulations. A China specialist for about 15 years, Changhua is involved in major regional initiatives. She leads a world-wide professional network, Professional Association for China’s Environment (PACE). She also serves on the Board of the Asia-Pacific Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSCP), the Standing Committee of Environmental Education Committee of Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences, and the Advisory Committee of Clean Air Initiative – China. Prior to returning to China, Changhua directed the Program for China Studies at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington, DC. She also consulted for multinational organizations like the World Bank, UNEP, and UNDP. She was the 1993 Fellow of World Press Institute and 2004 Fellow of the Temple Law School’s High-level US-China Roundtable on Environmental Law and Policy.

Tags: Climate Group, Culture of China, Environmental science, United Nations Environment Programme, Washington, Washington D.C, World Bank, World Resources Institute

Fang Yunzhou, Head of Department of Hybrid Power, Central Research Institute, Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.

Member of National Electric Vehicles Standardization, vice chairman of the Electric Vehicles of Society of Automotive Engineers of China, member of expert group for electric vehicles of Anhui Province. The new energy projects for vehicles that organized and led by Mr. Fang includes: Eight projects of Chinese National Programs for High Technology Research and Development (State 863 Programmes), one key project for international cooperation, four key projects for technology development of Anhui Province. He also applied for 11 patents of invention.

Ali Nourai, Manager, Distributed Energy Resources American Electric Power (USA)

Dr. Ali Nourai is chairman of the board of directors for the Electricity Storage Association (ESA), promoting development and commercial application of energy storage technologies as solutions to power and energy problems. He is also the manager of Distributed Energy Resources in American Electric Power (AEP). During his 30 years of activities in the utility industry, he received seven US patents for developing means to improve efficiency and performance of power systems and received the Walter Fee Award from IEEE’s Power Engineering Society for “Professional Contributions”. He championed the deployment of the first MW-scale NAS battery in the US in 2006 and is continuing his efforts towards delivering AEP’s goal to deploy 1000 MW of advanced energy storage by 2020.

Dr. Zhenxing Fu, Powertrain System Department – New Energy Vehicle Division, SAIC Motor Corporation (China)

Dr. Zhenxing Fu currently is Chief Engineer of Powertrain Systems, SAIC Motors. He has over 8 year experiences in the development of hybrid and electric powertrain systems, including energy storage, transmission, and conversion systems. He has published over 30 technical papers in this field.

He is a Senior member of IEEE and a member of Sigma Xi.

Said Al-Hallaj, Chairman and CEO, ALL CELL TECHNOLOGIES (USA)

Said Al-Hallaj is the Chairman and CEO of All Cell Technologies LLC, a technology transfer company at the University Technology Park at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, IL, USA. Said is also a Research Professor of Chemical Engineering and Coordinator for Renewable Energy Programs at IIT. Professor Al-Hallaj earned his B.Sc and M.Sc in Chemical Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology and a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from IIT. He has published over thirty technical peer reviewed journals and over twenty conference papers. Said is a the co-author of three issued patents and several patent applications in the area of energy storage and conversion with emphasis on renewable energy, hydrogen, batteries and fuel cells for stationary and transportation applications. Said’s efforts have led to the formation of two start-up companies at IIT: All Cell Technologies to commercialize lithium-ion batteries for portable and transportation applications and Sun Phocus Technologies to commercialize a hologram plan concentrator (HPC) technology in the building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) market.

Zhou Rong, General Engineer, TIANJIN QINGYUAN ELECTRIC VEHICLE (China)

Dr Zhou is a senior engineer of research, Electric Vehicle principal expert of China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC), general engineer of Tianjin Qingyuan Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. Dr Zhou, undertook to participate in more than 20 items of scientific research project of the National 863 program, the former Ministry of Machine Building, Scientific Committee of Tianjin municipal government and CATARC. He obtained two third prize of the Automotive Science & Technology Achievement Award in China, and a second price of Science & Technology Achievement Award in Tianjin. He got two National patents of Invention which have already been granted, and seven patents of utility model which have already been granted. He has edited and published two monographs and published 20 articles on some leading technical journals. Since 2002, started the EV development using lithium iron batteries, presided and participated in the development of pure electric passenger car, electric cargo van, hybrid sedan and hybrid bus which totally 4 series 8 models, there are 4 models of electric vehicles have fulfill the industrialization and exported to the United States and European markets. He has made an intensive study on the group technology of lithium ion battery, charging technology, interface techniques, thermal management technology, and security management of high tension electricity and matching the battery groups to the whole vehicle, especially has plenty of practical experiences on the calibration of the lithium ion battery groups, testing and evaluating the life cycle of the lithium ion batteries.

Xu Gang, Technology Vice President, LISHEN (China)

Dr Xu Gang, sudied at the Institute of Metal Research Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a Ph. D candidate of Electrochemistry. He worked at the Department of Chemistry, at the Israel Institute of Technology, Postdoctoral working on super-iron battery. In 2004 he joined the Tianjin Lishen battery company where he worked as a project manager, a director of the power battery production department, and a director of R&D center, and vice president.

Yi Cui, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Yi Cui went to University of Science and Technology of China, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 1998. He attended graduate school from 1998 to 2002 at Harvard University, where he worked under supervision of Professor Charles M. Lieber. He is now an Assistant Professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. His current research is focused on nanomaterials synthesis, electronic properties, solar cells, battery, memory and sensor devices. He has received the Technology Review World Top Young Innovator Award in 2004.