American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) (OTCQB: ABML), an American critical minerals and lithium-ion battery recycling company, welcomes new Director of Research and Development, Dr. York Smith.
Bringing over 15 years of research and development experience, Smith has an extensive background in applied sciences in chemical engineering and sustainable technology process development, with specific focuses on extractive metallurgy, electrochemistry, and non-ferrous metal recycling.
He has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Utah’s Materials Science and Engineering Department for the past six years, where he recently was awarded the distinguished honor of serving as part of the Henry Krumb Lecturer Series issued by the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, & Exploration for his work focused on “Lithium: Resources, Recovery, and Recycling.”
While at the University of Utah, he led a team of interdisciplinary researchers developing innovative and sustainable technologies for lithium extraction from primary and secondary resources including recycling technologies.
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Recently, a team he led comprised of members from the University of Utah, Cornell University, and UC Riverside was selected as Phase I finalists in the national competition “American-Made Challenges: Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize,” hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Dr. Smith received a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Utah. Dr. Smith was also awarded a fellowship as a postdoctoral scholar through the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, SunShot Initiative to examine use of eddy current separation methods for recycling of end-of-life solar panels.
His previous roles include chief process engineer for a sensor electrode manufacturing company, and research and development engineer at the start-up Nanosynth Materials and Sensors where he hosted a talk at TEDxReno.
He has also held research assistant positions at the University of Utah, University of Nevada, Reno, and the National Centre for Catalysis Research at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, with work ranging from developing catalytic materials for hydrogen generation to sensor materials for health monitoring and disease detection.
Smith has published extensively with over 50 journal publications and over 2,000 citations.
He serves on the strategic advisory committee of The REMADE Institute, an organization of industry innovators, academic researchers, and national labs to enhance the nation’s industrial competitiveness and lead the transition to a Circular Economy in the U.S.; is currently a member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, serving as a Session Co-Chair for their Industrial Minerals and Aggregate Division (2020); and is an associate editor for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, an international, peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Recently, Smith also provided the science behind a collaboration of a video art installation in New York’s Time Square that was part of a larger exhibit called “Reverse Alchemy” led by Jessica Segall.
Dr. York Smith, American Battery Technology Company Director of Research and Development, said:
Much of my prior research has focused on solving some of the fundamental challenges related to materials processing and sustainability.
“I am excited for this opportunity to work with the talented ABTC team to apply and utilize my research and development experiences and fundamental academic research in this new role.”
“One of the many things that attracted me to this new role with ABTC is the commitment of the company in developing scientifically sound, environmentally low-impact technologies vital for materials critical to electric vehicles and a sustainable future.”
In this new role, Smith will oversee the ABTC team of scientists at the company’s Research Development Center currently located at the University of Nevada Reno’s Nevada Center for Applied Research (NCAR) and within the cleantech incubator Greentown Labs.
Diligently focused on developing and evolving in-house, battery metals extraction technologies, the ABTC technology team supports continued work on their US Advanced Battery Consortium and Department of Energy funded collaboration with strategic partners BASF and C4V to demonstrate that battery grade metals nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium hydroxide can be manufactured from recycled materials at lower cost, lower environmental impact, and with higher domestic U.S. sourced content than conventional virgin sourced metals.
As well, Smith and the technology team continue to drive the company’s efforts to design and optimize its internally developed processing train for the manufacturing of battery cathode grade lithium hydroxide from Nevada-based sedimentary claystone resources as part ABTC’s Tonopah Flats Lithium Exploration Project which is supported by its recently awarded grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office in partnership with DuPont.
Ryan Melsert, American Battery Technology Company CEO, said:
On behalf of the entire ABTC team, I am thrilled to welcome York as our new Director of Research and Development.
Smith will also support the continued construction of ABTC’s Global Development Center, which will include onsite analytical and process laboratories, along with pilot bays for validating next-generation technologies, and will be housed in their pre-commercial lithium-ion battery recycling plant once completed.
“The experience and leadership that York brings to our research and development team will further strengthen and expand the maturation and commercialization of our battery metals extraction technologies supporting our continued and diligent focus on our growth strategies to address these global challenges at scale.”
For more information, please visit: www.americanbatterytechnology.com.
About American Battery Technology Company
American Battery Technology Company, which recently changed its name from American Battery Metals Corporation, is uniquely positioned to supply low-cost, low-environmental impact, and domestically sourced battery metals through its three divisions: lithium-ion battery recycling, primary battery metal extraction technologies, and primary resources development.
American Battery Technology Company has built a clean technology platform that is used to provide a key source of domestically manufactured critical and strategic battery metals to help meet the near insatiable demand from the electric vehicle, electrical grid storage, and consumer electronics industries.
This ESG-principled platform works to create a closed-loop circular economy for battery metals that champions ethical and environmentally sustainable sourcing of critical and strategic materials.
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American Battery Technology Company Hires Industry Expert as Director of Research and Development, March 24, 2022
