Aron Newman (Fed)

Dr. Aron Newman is the leader of the Infrastructure Materials Group (IMG) of the Materials and Structural Systems Division (MSSD) of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) whose team focusses on evaluating the durability of materials, including cements, concretes, and polymers.  Material durability impacts resiliency of our infrastructure.  Use of materials for infrastructure applications are impacted by both chronic, i.e. long term exposure, and acute hazards, e.g. hurricanes and earthquakes.  The frequency and intensity of these hazards are increasing due to climate change and both adaptation and mitigation strategies are needed to ensure our infrastructure is resilient.  IMG is investigating service life of these materials and developing new measurement methods to improve predictive tools that can aid in the design, leading towards greater infrastructure resiliency.

Dr. Newman joined the Engineering Laboratory in 2020 and is leveraging his research and development experience to manage current projects and to investigate future research directions with input from staff and stakeholders.  Prior to joining NIST, Dr. Newman was at Booz Allen Hamilton from 2010 – 2020 and supported technical program management of various research projects at Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy with the Department of Energy.  The research areas include cement, batteries, fuel cells, permanent magnets, and polymer membranes.  From 2003 to 2010, Dr. Newman was at Physical Sciences, Inc. and had a succession of promotions with increasing responsibility from Physical Scientist to Principal Research Scientist to Group Leader, Energy Technologies.  From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Newman was at Energizer working on alkaline cathodes for primary batteries.  After getting his Ph.D., Dr. Newman served as a postdoctoral appointee at Argonne National Laboratory from 1998 to 2000 working on diagnostic testing and characterization of lithium ion batteries.

Dr. Newman is a member of the following professional societies:

• Materials Research Society (MRS)
• ASTM International

Publications and Presentations

• A. Newman, Oral Presentation “Approaches to Vehicle Energy Storage and Barriers to Commercialization,” Advanced Automotive Battery Conference, June 24, 2019.
• P. Albertus, S.Babinec, S. Litzelman, and A. Newman, “Status and challenges in enabling the lithium metal electrode for high-energy and low-cost rechargeable batteries,” Nature Energy, 2018(3) 16-21.
• P. Liu, R. Russ, and A. Newman, “Long-range, low-cost electric vehicles enabled by robust energy storage,” MRS Energy & Sustainability : A Review Journal, 2015 (2) 1-13.
• A. Newman, Oral Presentation “Overview of Energy Storage R&D Activities,” Inter-Agency Power Group Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, July, 2012.
• A. Newman, K. White, and Q. Horn, “Carbon Foam Based Three-Dimensional Batteries and Methods,” U.S. Patent Application 20090291368, November 26, 2009.
• A. Newman, “Electroactive Separator For Overcharge Protection,” U.S. Patent Application 20090176160, July 7, 2009.