Experience
Dr. Will West is Group Supervisor of JPL’s Electrochemical Research, Technology, & Engineering Group. He has worked at JPL as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, or Task Manager for numerous research and technology development programs related to electrochemistry and energy storage/conversion. In addition to his R&D activities, he presently serves as Cognizant Engineer for the rover and descent stage batteries on the JPL's Mars 2020 mission. He received his B.S.E. degree in Chemical Engineering, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science Engineering from Arizona State University. After completing his Ph.D., Dr. West served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech and JPL. He has worked as Prototyping Co-Lead at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (Caltech), consultant for numerous research and development firms, expert witness for the U. S. Department of Justice, lecturer at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, and as Associate Professor at Nagoya University (Japan). He holds 34 U.S. and international patents, is author/co-author on approximately 50 journal articles and 100 conference presentations, and co-edited/co-authored the Handbook of Solid State Batteries.