Modern batteries power everything from cars to cell phones, but they are far from perfect – they catch fire, they perform poorly in cold weather and they have relatively short lifecycles, among other issues. Now researchers from the University of Houston have described a new class of material that addresses many of those concerns in Nature Materials.

If there’s one thing Yan Yao gets a charge out of, it’s the idea of creating a better battery. The Cullen College assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering is known for being the most current in the battery industry. A Google search yields more than 16,000 citations of papers by Yao.

Yifei Li, a former doctoral student in the Cullen College’s department of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), was garnering international attention for his battery research before he’d even earned his degree.

Yan Yao, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, authored a research paper that was chosen as the cover of the January 2016 edition of the Journal of Materials Chem

Lauren Talarico, a reporter for KHOU 11 News in Houston, interviewed Yan Yao, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH Cullen College of Engineering, for her report on exploding hoverboards this week.

Yanliang (Leonard) Liang, electrical and computer engineering research associate at UH Cullen College, won the Silver Nano Research Poster Award at the 10th Sino-U.S. Symposium on Nanoscale Science and Technology in June.

Yan Yao, assistant professor in the Cullen College’s electrical and computer engineering department, is developing alternatives to popular lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power much of the modern world.

Last June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry drove an electric car made by Tesla Motors in front of the Texas State Capitol Building in Austin – a symbolic gesture meant to signify his intention of convincing Tesla executives to build their more than $4 billion battery factory right here in the Lone Star State.

For all their virtues, electric vehicles have two major drawbacks: their cost – usually tens of thousands of dollars more than comparable gasoline-powered cars – and how far they can travel on a single charge.