Dr. Hasna Aziam, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

In 2025, the POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers was given to Dr. Hasna Aziam, an Assistant Professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), Ben Guerir, Morocco.

Dr. Hasna Aziam is an Assistant professor at UM6P with her research dedicated to the development of eco-friendly, cost-effective materials for lithium- and sodium-ion batteries. Her research interests are also directed toward post-lithium technologies such as zinc, aluminum, and magnesium batteries, with a vision of advancing sustainable energy storage.

She obtained a Master’s degree in Functional Materials from the Faculty of Science and Technology, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh. She also received her Ph.D. in Electrochemistry/Energy Storage from the same university in an interdisciplinary project together with Mohammed IV Polytechnic University of Ben Guerir. After her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral researcher and then a Research and Education Fellow at UM6P, before she was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2023.

She will mainly be collaborating with Prof. Dr. Birgit Esser from Ulm University.

Dr. Theresa Schoetz, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

In 2024, the POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers was given to Dr. Theresa Schoetz, currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Dr. Schoetz research interests are the development of novel materials, chemistries, and devices for energy storage applications, in particular electrochemical materials and the design for batteries and supercapacitors. Her recent research focus includes gride-energy conversion and storage with photo-charging batteries and flexible batteries for wearable electronics. Her research interests are also on AI-guided approaches to designing redox-active polymer materials.

She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Brandenburgische Technische Universität, followed by her Master of Science in Electrochemistry and Electroplating at Technische Universität Ilmenau. In 2019, she received her Ph.D. in Sustainable Infrastructure Systems (Engineering and Physical Sciences) at the University of Southampton, UK where she also spent two years as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Electronics Frontiers. In 2020, Dr. Schoetz became Research Associate at the City College of New York, USA and since November 2023 she is Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.

She is mainly collaborating with Prof. Dr. Dominic Bresser (HIU) and with Prof. Dr. Birgit Esser, Ulm University, which is documented in a recent publication: H. Shrikant et al., ACS Applied Engineering Materials 2026, 4, 3018. DOI: 10.1021/acsaenm.6c00296.

Dr. María Arnaiz, CIC energiGUNE

In 2023, the POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers was given to Dr. María Arnaiz, an Associate Researcher at CIC energiGUNE in Spain.

Dr. Arnaiz current research focus is mainly centered on developing metal-ion capacitors and electrolytes including sodium-ion capacitors. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2019 at the university

Dr Arnaiz completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), where she also received her Ph.D. in 2019. During her doctoral studies, which were financed by a pre-doctoral grant awarded by the Spanish government, she worked at CIC EnergiGune on the development of lithium and sodium-ion capacitors with a high energy-to-power ratio. She also undertook international research stays during her doctoral studies, working on electrolytes for potassium ion technology at KIT and at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. After a six-month stay at CIDETEC-Energy Storage as a Junior Researcher, she rejoined CIC energiGUNE as a Postdoctoral Researcher.

Dr. Arnaiz mainly collaborated with the research groups of Dr. Sonia Dsoke and Dr. Fabian Jeschull at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Dr. Guiomar Hernández, Uppsala University

In 2022, the POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers was given to Dr. Guiomar Hernández, currently an Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry,  Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Dr. Hernández research is focused on safer and more sustainable solutions for next generation batteries such as fluorine-free electrolytes for lithium and sodium-based batteries and carbonyl-based solid polymer electrolytes. Whereby she focusses on understanding transport properties and coordination strength between polymers and different cations, in particular lithium, sodium and magnesium. She also dedicates efforts to gender equity, see e.g., the Perspective on this topic.

Dr. Hernández received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Menéndez Pelayo International

University, Spain and her Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry and Polymeric Materials from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). In 2017, she joined the Department of Chemistry, Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University as a Postdoctoral Fellow and was promoted researcher and senior researcher before she accepted her current position.

Dr. Guiomar Hernández collaborated with the research group of Dr. Fabian Jeschull at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on polymer electrolytes for potassium-ion batteries. Furthermore, she collaborated on polymer electrolytes for Mg and Ca batteries in collaboration with Dr. Zhirong Zhao-Karger, KIT (INT; electrolyte salts/Mg & Ca) and Prof. Dr. Patrick Théato, KIT(ITCP; polymer synthesis). The collaborations are documented in a joint publication: F. Jeschull et al., Advanced Energy Materials, 2024, 14, 2302745; DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202302745

Dr. Kelsey Hatzell, Princeton University

In 2021, the POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers was given to Dr. Kelsay Hatzell, who is currently an Associate Professor at Princeton University in the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University.

Dr. Hatzell research focuses on understanding phenomena at the solid-liquid, solid-gas, and solid-solid interfaces in energy storage and conversion using e.g., non-equilibrium X-ray techniques.

She received her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Economics from Swarthmore College and her Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.  Dr. Hatzell earned her Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering at Drexel University in 2015. She then received an ITRI-Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellowship from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA, where she worked on in-situ monitoring of structural transformations She joint then Vanderbilt University, Chemical, respectively Mechanical Engineering as Assistant Professor in 2017.  In 2021, she joint Princeton University. She received numerous awards among those, the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2025.

The collaborative research with the groups of apl. Prof. Dr. Marcus Rohnke and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Janek at the Justus Liebig University Giessen focused on the ion transport in all solid-state sodium batteries.

Dr. Ellen Matson, University of Rochester

In 2020, the first awardee of the POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers was Dr. Ellen Matson, who was at that time a Wilmot Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Rochester.

Dr. Matson is a full Professor at the Department of Chemistry (Marshall D. Gates, Jr. Professor of Chemistry), University of Rochester. Her research focus is on inorganic and materials chemistry, with interests in interfacial reactivity and electronic structure in the context of multielectron/multiproton energy storage and conversion reactions.

She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Boston University und her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University. From 2013-2015 she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she worked on synthesis, characterization and reactivity of first-row transition metal complexes supported by redox-active ligands. Her independent career began at the University of Rochester in 2015, receiving tenure in 2021. In 2024, she was promoted to the Marshall D. Gates Jr. Chair of Chemistry.

Her collaboration in POLiS based on the award was mainly with the research group of Dr. Montaha Anjass, who is currently a Professor at the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and has a joint appointment at Institute of Inorganic Chemistry I, Ulm University.