Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Theresa Schoetz

Theresa Schoetz
Theresa Schoetz
  • Assistant Professor
(217) 300-7411
112C Roger Adams Laboratory

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Education

  • B.Eng., Brandenburgische Technische Universität (Hochschule Lausitz), Germany, 2013.
  • M.Sc., Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany, 2016.
  • Ph.D., University of Southampton, UK, 2019.
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Zepler Institute, University of Southampton, UK, 2019-2020.
  • Research Associate, The City College of New York, CUNY, 2020-2023.

Academic Positions

  • Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Research Interests

  • Energy Storage
  • Electrochemistry

Research Statement

The research in our group focuses on engineering electrochemical interfaces; the regions where electronic and ionic charge meet. These interfaces govern the behavior of nearly all electrochemical technologies, from batteries, sensors, memristors and electro-catalytic reactors. By quantitatively linking interfacial structure to charge-storage and transfer mechanisms, our group aims to establish predictive design principles that guide the development of electrochemical materials and devices. We are now advancing our theoretical framework toward a fully predictive design platform for electrochemical interfaces. By coupling our physics-based models with artificial intelligence, we aim to create a data-driven feedback loop that learns from both experiments and theory to autonomously propose new interfacial architectures. This approach enables rational design of materials across applications, from energy storage, catalysis, sensing to electronics, where charge transfer at interfaces governs performance. Ultimately, this integration of physical theory and machine learning seeks to establish a new discipline of interface intelligence, where electrochemical materials are not discovered by chance, but intelligently designed from first principles.

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Selected Articles in Journals

  • P. Ghasemiahangarani, G. Farhan, D. del Mundo, T. Schoetz, Charge Storage Mechanisms in Batteries and Capacitors: A Perspective of the Electrochemical Interface. Adv. Energy Mater. 2025, 2404704.
  • O.M. Leung, L.W. Gordon, R.J. Messinger, T. Prodromakis, J.A. Wharton, C. Ponce de Leon, T. Schoetz; Solid Polymer Electrolytes with Enhanced Electrochemical Stability for High-Capacity Aluminum Batteries; Advanced Energy Materials 14 (2024) 2303285.
  • T.Schoetz, L. Robinson, L.W. Gordon, S. Stariha, C. Harris, H.L. Seong, J.-P. Jones, E. Brandon, R.J. Messinger; Elucidating the Role of Electrochemically Formed LiF on Discharge and Aging in Li-CFx Batteries; ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 16 (2024) 18722–18733.
  • J.H. Xu, T. Schoetz, J.R. McManus, V.R. Subramanian, P.W. Fields, R.J. Messinger; Tunable Pseudocapacitive Intercalation of Chloroaluminate Anions into Graphite Electrodes for Rechargeable Aluminum Batteries; Journal of The Electrochemical Society 168 (2021) 060514.
  • T. Schoetz, L.W. Gordon, S, Ivanov, A. Bund, D. Mandler, R.J. Messinger; Disentangling Faradaic, Pseudocapacitive, and Capacitive Charge Storage: A Tutorial for the Characterization of Batteries, Supercapacitors, and Hybrid Systems; Electrochimica Acta 412 (2022) 140072.

Research Honors

  • POLiS Award of Excellence (May 2024)

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