AIC announces 2025 Recipients of the AIC-Bakar Awards

AIC is proud to announce the 2025 recipients of the AIC-Bakar Awards, supporting the translation of cutting-edge academic research into real-world applications for positive social impact. This year’s awards recognize pioneering work in the areas of safer, more sustainable battery technology and low-carbon cement production.

Transforming Energy Storage with Safer, Scalable Batteries

UC Berkeley Professor Gerbrand Ceder, a leading researcher in Materials Science and Engineering, has been awarded a 2025 AIC-Bakar Grant to advance his team’s development of next-generation lithium-ion battery materials. Professor Ceder’s lab is engineering safer, low-cost cathodes using abundant, less toxic elements like manganese and titanium, reducing reliance on scarce and environmentally harmful materials such as nickel and cobalt.

Their innovative δ-DRX cathode materials promise high energy density, long cycle life, and greater safety—critical improvements as the world adopts renewable energy and electric vehicles. With AIC-Bakar support, the team will scale up a new, efficient manufacturing method and begin testing large-format cells, advancing their innovations toward commercialization and real-world deployment.

Reinventing Cement to Cut Global CO₂ Emissions

UC Berkeley Professors Paulo Monteiro and Roya Maboudian have been awarded a 2025 AIC-Bakar Grant for their breakthrough discoveries in sustainable cement production. Their project introduces a revolutionary Microwave-Fiber Induced Plasma (MFIP) process that transforms recycled concrete waste into high-performance cement within seconds—eliminating the need for virgin limestone and drastically reducing the carbon footprint of cement manufacturing.

With cement production responsible for roughly 8% of global CO₂ emissions, this technology has transformative potential. The MFIP process not only enables circular use of materials but also supports decentralized, low-cost production well-suited for disaster recovery zones, developing regions, and rapidly urbanizing areas. At scale, the technology could cut over 1 billion tons of CO₂ emissions annually while opening new opportunities in carbon credit markets and sustainable construction.