Research/Areas of Interest

novel polymer electrolytes for batteries, liquid crystal polymers, composite materials, materials science

Education

  • PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States, 1988
  • S.M, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United Sates, 1981
  • B.B, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, United States, 1979

Biography

Dr. Mike Zimmerman, Founder, CTO, CEO and Professor of the Practice
Mike is a materials scientist whose career has been about developing unique materials and processes, to enable new innovative products, in energy storage, semiconductor packaging, thin films, and many structural components. He spent time at two of the most innovation large product companies (Bell Labs, St Gobain), and has been the Founder of four start-up companies. He has also been a Professor at Tufts University and Imperial College-London, teaching and doing research in materials science for new products.
Mike is the Founder of Ionic Materials and severed as CEO/CTO. Ionic is a materials technology company that has developed a solid polymer electrolyte with a new conduction mechanism for solid state batteries. This technology provides inherently safe batteries to the EV and Grid storage markets. Technology was featured on "Search for the Super battery, on NOVA PBS. Mike recently founded Z-Polymers, which is developing next generation "super-polymers" for advanced energy solutions such as fuel cells for hydrogen economy and new manufacturing advances using 3D printing.
Prior to Ionic Materials, Mike founded Quantum Leap Packaging (QLP) which invented, then developed a new liquid crystal polymer technology used for high frequency semiconductor packaging, and films for the emerging 5G antennae and radar systems. QLP was acquired by a multinational manufacturer, Interplex Industries, and a new company iQLP was spun off to exploit highspeed LCP films. iQLP was acquired by Ionic Materials. Prior to this Mike worked at Bell Laboratories where his role was to develop new materials and process for semiconductor packaging and materials for the original key technologies for fiber to the home. For his technical contributions he rose to the level of "Consulting Member of Technical Staff" which is reserved for the top 1% of the technical community. After Bell Labs, Mike worked as Scientific Director at St Gobain for North America, where he was responsible for long range research and relationships with universities.
Mike has been a Professor at Tufts University for more than 30 years, teaching materials science, and providing students opportunity for thesis/research work at his companies. He is also a Visiting Professor at Imperial College in London.
Mike has a BS, MS, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), MIT, and University of Pennsylvania