Top battery scientist Stefano Passerini relocates to China

World-leading battery scientist Stefano Passerini has taken up a full-time position at Nanjing Normal University in eastern China.

The 65-year-old Italian researcher – a member of Germany’s National Academy of Sciences – will head the new International Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage, the university said in a statement.

At a ceremony at the Xianlin campus on Thursday, Passerini said his decision to move to Nanjing reflected his confidence in the university’s research, talent and potential.

Passerini pledged to build the institute into a world-class research centre and a bridge for international collaboration, helping the university push to the front of energy science.

Wang Chengbin, party secretary of the university, called the appointment a “milestone” in Nanjing Normal’s talent strategy.

He said the new institute would have top-tier labs and facilities and that it aimed to become a hub for China’s “dual carbon” goals of peaking emissions before 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.