Pushed by Trump policies, top U.S. battery scientist is moving to Singapore

From ScienceMag:

Shirley Meng grew up in China and earned her degrees in Singapore, but the United States is where she built her career trying to make better and cheaper batteries for a power-hungry world. After 2 decades here, the University of Chicago (UChicago) materials scientist, who also heads a Department of Energy (DOE) research hub, is now heading back to Asia.

On 1 July, Meng will become vice president for innovation and global affairs at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), her undergraduate alma mater and a growing research powerhouse. Only 35 years old, NTU was ranked 12th this year in one global assessment of research universities—one rung above UChicago.

Meng took the job because she thinks the U.S. has turned away from a commitment to decarbonize its economy. She’s leaving with mixed emotions—and the hope that the political environment for more sustainable energy sources will improve once President Donald Trump leaves office.

In making the move, Meng is also stepping down as director of the $62 million Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA) based at Argonne National Laboratory, one of two DOE battery hubs launched in the waning months of former President Joe Biden’s administration. ESRA has not had its funding reduced, and Meng says the hub’s focus on using artificial intelligence in designing next-generation batteries appeals to the White House. Even so, she says, “The last 15 months have been extraordinarily difficult for the energy storage field, with many important projects being sidelined.”

The Trump administration’s immigration policies, including its restrictions on Chinese-born scientists, are another factor in her decision to move to NTU. “I’ve always been an internationalist,” says Meng, who became a Singapore citizen in 2004, “and I think that Singapore is a place where people can collaborate, regardless of what country you come from.”

Meng joined the UChicago faculty in 2022 after spending more than a decade at the University of California San Diego, where her husband, Graham Elliott, is a professor of econometrics. UChicago “has given me 2 years to decide” whether to return or sever ties to the institution, she says. “If things start moving in the right direction—and my family wants me to come back—I hope I can do it.”

In the meantime, she says, she will maintain a partial appointment at UChicago and continue to run her lab, which recently developed the first anode-free sodium solid-state battery, an alternative to lithium batteries that could allow more affordable and faster charging of electric vehicles.

Meng spoke with Science this week after NTU issued a press release about her new post on 22 April—Earth Day, as she notes. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

Q: What made the NTU offer so attractive?

A: I was really searching for a position that would let me do my work, which is to translate the fundamental science into industry impact. I’ve been entrusted with a very high position in my home country, but at the same time, I’m seriously concerned that, if I were asked by the [U.S.] Department of War to perform certain tasks, I probably won’t be able to do it. Things like [making better batteries for] drones, or humanoids for war fighting. Maybe they already have their own expertise. But I just don’t want to risk it.

I also think it’s important that I maintain my reputation as someone who’s always building things, not destroying things. So, I decided it’s probably better for somebody else to [direct the DOE hub].

Q: How has the increasingly tense U.S.-Chinese relationship affected you?

A: I’m not a big fan of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. So I had no hesitation about giving up my Chinese citizenship. But I think a lot of my frustration in the last 2 years is the lack of differentiation in discussions about U.S. relationships with China. The word Chinese is being mixed up with race, nationality, and culture, and it’s been extremely tiring to deal with that situation.

Q: What is the situation for foreign-born scientists hoping to work at Argonne and other DOE national labs?

A: I think it’s important for the nation to impose strict [security] controls on the labs. So I’m not complaining. But it also creates difficulties for students from certain nationalities.

As long as they can get a visa and get through the paperwork, it is OK. But it’s not easy to go through all the checkpoints. There was a postdoc from [South] Korea we wanted to hire. But we would have had to pay $100,000 because he needed to come in on an H-1B visa, and nobody understands the rules and where the money would come from. So, in the end we just had to say no.

Another student who is funded by Tesla was told they cannot work [at Argonne]. And when I asked why, I was told the reason is that Tesla has a China operation. I wanted to say, “What international company does not do business in China?”

Q: How are these tensions playing out within DOE’s Office of Science, which is funding the battery hub?

A: I think the DOE managers do a fantastic job. For 18 years, program managers have watched me grow up and mature into a senior scientist, and I’m very grateful for all the support DOE has given me. But they are also caught up in this current situation, and they have been told not to talk about it.

Q: How do you feel about this administration’s emphasis on fossil fuels and tariffs?

A: The leaders of industry know that we need to decarbonize our economy. They also understand that the world has to work together, and that globalization is unstoppable. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has been moving in the other direction. I was in Saudi Arabia this winter [on a delegation led by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright], and the Saudi energy minister took me aside at one point and said, “You know, your [energy] secretary is more pro-oil than me.”

Q: Is there a way for scientists to mitigate the strained relationship between the two countries?

A: We are now in this perpetual cycle of doubt and distrust. A lot of Chinese scientists benefited from the U.S. system in the past 2 decades, and they have gone back to Asia and become very successful. That’s great. But I wish they would show a little bit more gratitude for what America has done for them. I think that would help ease tensions on both sides.

Q: How will you carry out your responsibilities at NTU while maintaining your lab in Chicago?

A: I learned that 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. was working time between Singapore and MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] when I was part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology [a collaboration begun in the early 2000s] while getting my Ph.D. I’m a lot older now [Meng turns 50 in October], but I think I can survive again on that schedule.”

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