Zhao Liu

Zhao Liu is a Senior Market Development Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific, based in Oregon, USA, specializing in the battery market. He earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University and joined Thermo Fisher in 2019. In 2025, he was appointed Affiliated Professor in the Materials Science & Engineering Department at the University of Washington to strengthen academia–industry collaboration. His work focuses on advancing battery characterization metrology across R&D and manufacturing, addressing analytical challenges, and driving practical solutions through strategic partnerships with academic and industrial stakeholders.

Title: From Ex Situ to In Situ: A roadmap for electron microscopy to accelerate battery innovation

In this presentation, I will discuss how a suite of electron microscopy (EM) modalities can be deployed as high-impact metrology tools across battery R&D, quality control, and failure analysis. The scope spans ex situ and in situ/operando workflows, highlighting how standardized sample preparation, acquisition, and analysis protocols enable reproducible, quantitative insights from the particle- to device-scale.