October 4, 2022 New Mechanical Engineering Faculty: James Pikul Written By: Caitlin Scott Departments: Mechanical Engineering Categories: Faculty James Pikul will join the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an Associate Professor in Fall 2023! Pikul’s research group seeks to make transformative advances in energy storage, energy conversion, multifunctional materials, and robotics by understanding and exploiting nanoscale to macroscopic characteristics of electrochemistry and soft matter. His electrochemistry work in particular fits strategically between the department’s efforts in energy storage and robotics. Pikul earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania.