Ann Marie Sastry is an American engineer, educator, and businessperson. She was President of

Sakti3 Sakti3 is a solid-state battery company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan owned by Dyson. History Sakti3 was co-founded in 2007 by Dr. Ann Marie Sastry, Dr. Chia-Wei Wang and Dr. Fabio Albano, as a spin-out from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor ...

, a

solid-state battery A solid-state battery (SSB) is an electrical battery that uses a solid electrolyte (''solectro'') to conduct ions between the electrodes, instead of the liquid or gel polymer electrolytes found in conventional batteries. Solid-state batteries t ...

company based in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, Michigan. Sastry was the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical, Biomedical and Materials Science and Engineering at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

from 1995 to 2012.

Biography

Sastry got her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

as a Eugene I. DuPont Scholar. She later received a PhD degree in mechanical engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. She joined the

as a faculty member in 1995. While at the

, she founded and directed GM/UM Advanced Battery Coalition for Drivetrains and Energy Systems Engineering graduate program.

Research

Sastry has worked in a variety of fields, including

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

percolation In physics, chemistry, and materials science, percolation () refers to the movement and filtration, filtering of fluids through porous materials. It is described by Darcy's law. Broader applications have since been developed that cover connecti ...

phenomena, diabetes, and

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

materials, design and optimization. According to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

, , her work has been cited over 11473 times.

Sakti3

Sastry co-founded the

company

in 2008 as a spin-out of her university lab, with several of her students. The Michigan Economic Development Council (MEDC) gave Sakti3 a no-strings grant of $3 million, in addition to other tax credit incentives issued directly through the State of Michigan, in the hopes it could develop a viable technology that could create permanent, Michigan-based jobs. Sakti3 also received $1 million in funding from the federal government, administered through the Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC). Sakti3 at one time claimed an intellectual property portfolio of 94 patents and patents pending. Sakti3 was acquired by

Dyson Dyson may refer to: * Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson * Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson * Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon * Dyson (operating system), a Unix general- ...

in October 2015, with the expectation that Sakti's battery technology could help Dyson become an electric car manufacturer. However, by April 2017, Dyson determined the patents had no utility and abandoned Sakti3's entire patent portfolio and cancelled its licensing agreement. Eight months after Dyson announced that they had relinquished Sakti3's core battery patents, Sastry departed Dyson amid doubts in the field regarding her claim that she was on the verge of commercializing much-sought-after solid state battery technology. In October 2019, Dyson announced that it had scrapped its electric car project altogether. There is no record that any government entity received any material benefit from their investment despite Sastry receiving a significant personal windfall from the sale to Dyson. Former employees (who were not on staff at Sakti3 at the time of the Dyson acquisition) have criticized the company. Fabio Albano, Marc Langlois, and Steve Buckingham claimed that the company's early patents and methods were useless and that Sakti3 was using an unscalable stacked cell configuration. The only independently verified data on Sakti3's prototypes by the United States Department of Energy show a capacity of 2.4 mAh, only capable of powering very small devices. Steve Buckingham, a former employee, has publicly expressed his disappointment with the small area (one square cm) of the best cell produced. Bob Kruse, formerly GMs most senior electric vehicle executive, stayed on as COO for less than 2 years.

Awards and honors

Sastry has won multiple awards and honors including 1997

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...

PECASE Award (

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

), Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award of the

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

in 2007 and Frank Kreith Award of the

in 2011. She was named an

fellow in 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sastry, Ann Marie Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women chief executives Cornell University alumni University of Michigan faculty American women engineers American women academics 21st-century American women Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers