Bilge Yildiz

Bilge Yildiz is the Breene M. Kerr (1951) Professor in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. She leads the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces. Her research focuses on laying the scientific groundwork and proof-of-principle material systems for the next generation of high-efficiency devices for energy conversion and information processing, by combining in situ surface sensitive experiments with first-principles calculations and novel atomistic simulations. Her work has made significant con­tri­bu­tions to advancing the molecular-level understanding of oxygen exchange kinetics on solid surfaces, and of ion and electron transport, under electro-chemo-mechanical conditions. The scientific insights derived from her research guide the design of novel material chemistries for efficient and durable solid oxide fuel cells, thermo-/electro-chemical splitting of H₂O and CO₂, high energy density solid state batteries, red-ox based memristive information storage and processing, and corrosion resistant films. Before coming to MIT, Yildiz worked at Argonne National Laboratory. She earned a BS in nuclear energy from Hacettepe University, and a PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT.

Publications

• Lu, Q., Huberman, S., Zhang, H., Song, Q., Wang, J., Vardar, G., Hunt, A., Waluyo, I., Chen, G., Bilge Yildiz, B. (2020). Bi-Directional Tuning of Thermal Transport in SrCoO_x with Electrochemically Induced Phase Transitions. Nature Materials. 
• Kim, D., Bliem, R., Hess, F., Gallet, J., Yildiz, B. (2020). Electrochemical Polarization Dependence of the Elastic and Electrostatic Driving Forces to Aliovalent Dopant Segregation on LaMnO3. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142, 3548-3563.
• Chen, Y., Huang, S., Ji, X., Adepalli, K., Yin, K., Ling, X., Wang, W., Xue, J., Dresselhaus, M., Kong, J., Yildiz, B. (2018). Tuning Electronic Structure of Single Layer MoS₂ through Defect and Interface Engineering. ACSNano 12 (3), 2569-2579.
• Youssef, M., Van Vliet, K.J., Yildiz, B. (2017). Polarizing Oxygen  Vacancies in Insulating Metal Oxides Under High Electric Field. Physical Review Letters 119, 126002.
• L. Sun, L., Marrocchelli, D., Yildiz, B. (2015). Edge Dislocation Slows down Oxide Ion Diffusion in Doped CeO₂ by Segregation of Charged Defects. Nature Communications, 6 Article No: 6294.

Media

• Feb. 24, 2020: MIT News, A material’s insulating properties can be tuned at will.
• Sept. 21, 2017: MIT News, New analysis explains role of defects in metal oxides.
• June 13, 2016: MIT News, Researchers find a way to extend life and improve performance of fuel cell electrodes.