Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, 2018
  • M.S., Technical Entrepreneurship and Management, University of Rochester, 2016
  • B.E., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 2013
Professional Honors
  • Office of Science Graduate Student Research Award (SCGSR), Department of Energy, 2015
  • Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT), National Science Foundation, 2014
Professional Affiliations
  • The Materials Research Society

Dr. Shen specializes in electrochemistry, materials characterization, battery science and technologies, and failure analysis. He has evaluated next generation energy storage technologies for safety, reliability, quality, and performance, such as lithium sulfur, silicon anodes, solid-state, impact-safe electrolytes, and zero-volt technologies. 

Dr. Shen has designed custom experiments to probe battery performance and reliability, such as establishing space readiness of batteries from a variety of manufacturers. He also has experience with a variety of material and electrochemical characterization methods to identify properties such as material composition and morphology, coating structure-property relationships, and battery degradation mechanisms. His scientific expertise includes x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), rheology, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Shen worked as a battery scientist at The Aerospace Corporation where he used his expertise to evaluate energy storage technologies for national security space applications. His work included on-orbit satellite operations (battery) support, elucidating failure modes in space batteries, performing flight-like battery testing to monitor and predict battery state of health prior to launch, and vetting next-generation energy-storage candidates for future space programs.

Dr. Shen completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Rochester. During his graduate work, he developed polymer coatings for a variety of battery and energy storage applications, including improving the cycling stability of silicon-based anodes, enhancing the ionic conductivity of solid-polymer composite electrolytes, and sterically stabilizing shear-thickening, impact-safe electrolytes. In addition, Dr. Shen worked closely with several staff scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Energy Storage and Membrane Materials group under a DOE office of science graduate student research award (SCGSR) to further develop and characterize advanced battery technologies.