Robert Kostecki is a Principal Investigator and Staff Scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), where he has been employed since 1995. His research group studies the chemical and physical processes that occur in surface layers of rechargeable battery electrodes. He uses in situ Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic Force and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (AFM/STM) in conjunction with a variety of electrochemical methods to characterize existing and new materials for use in modern batteries.
Dr. Kostecki received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Geneva in Switzerland in 1994, Master's degree in Solid State Technology and B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Warsaw Technical University (Poland) in 1985 and 1983, respectively. Dr. Kostecki has co-authored 13 papers in scientific journals, 2 papers in scientific conference proceedings, 15 presentations at scientific and technical conferences and 3 patents and disclosures.(to see a detailed list click here).
Prior to joining LBNL he was a Junior Research Fellow and subsequently, from 1988, Assistant Lecturer in the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences engaged in investigations of corrosion processes and passivity phenomena on metallic electrodes. Then, starting from 1990 as a Research Assistant in the Department of Applied Chemistry of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, he conducted research of the electrochemical reduction of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, electrochemical characterization of conducting polymer films and on photoelectrochemical properties of metallic and semiconductor metal oxides thin film electrodes.
Dr. Kostecki's recent discovery of a novel photochromic-electrochromic composite electrode is described here, as well as in a manuscript published by R. Kostecki, T. Richardson and F. McLarnon, "Photochemical and Photoelectrochemical Behavior of a Novel TiO2/Ni(OH)2 Electrode," J. Electrochem. Soc., 145, 2380-85 (1998).
Dr. Kostecki is an active member of the Electrochemical Society.