Sossina M. Haile facts for kids

Sossina M. Haile (Ge'ez: ሶስና ሃይሌ, born July 28, 1966) is an Ethiopian-American scientist. She is famous for creating the first solid acid fuel cells. These are special devices that can make electricity. She is a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA.

Sossina Haile has won many important awards for her science. She received the National Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. She also earned the Humboldt Fellowship and the Fulbright Fellowship. These awards helped her do research in Germany. In 2018, she was chosen as a Fellow of the Materials Research Society. This means she is recognized as a top expert in her field.

Early Life and School

Sossina Haile was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1966. When she was about 10 years old, her family had to leave Ethiopia. This was because of a difficult time in their country. Her family moved to a rural area in Minnesota, USA. Sossina went to Saint John's Preparatory School there. She graduated from high school in 1983.

She went to college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. She also completed her PhD at MIT. She also got a Master of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Her PhD research was about understanding how certain materials conduct electricity.

After her studies, Sossina Haile became a professor. She taught at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1996, she joined the faculty at Caltech. She worked there for 18 years. In 2015, she moved to Northwestern University. At Northwestern, she is a top professor in materials science and engineering.

Research: Making Electricity Better

Sossina Haile's research helps us understand how electricity moves through solid materials. She studies how tiny charged particles, called ions, move. This field is called "ionic conduction." Her goal is to use this knowledge to create better materials. These materials can then be used in advanced devices.

Fuel Cells and Energy

One big focus of her work is on fuel cells. Fuel cells are devices that can create electricity from chemical reactions. They are a clean way to produce power. Her team studies different types of materials for fuel cells. These include materials that conduct protons or oxygen.

They use special tools to study these materials. One common method is called A.C. impedance spectroscopy. This helps them measure how well materials conduct electricity. They also study the structure of these materials. They use X-ray and neutron diffraction to see how atoms are arranged. This helps them understand why some materials conduct electricity better than others.

For example, her group found that some materials become much better at conducting electricity when they change their structure. They also showed that a material called Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−d works very well as a part of solid oxide fuel cells.

Her research on solid-state ionics gets support from important groups. These include the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Department of Energy.

Building New Devices

Sossina Haile's research also involves creating new devices. She works on small power generators. These generators use solid oxide fuel cells. They are great for portable power, like for small electronic devices.

She also works on tiny devices called microactuators and micropumps. These are very small machines that can move or pump tiny amounts of liquid. They are important for developing Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Her work on these devices often involves working with experts from many different science fields.

See also

• Timeline of women in science
• List of Ethiopian scientists