Our mission
Our mission is to support the development of a decarbonized global economy through materials innovation.
We work closely with our partners to identify the right balance of tools and services for their needs.
Learn what we’re all about!
Our story
Aionics, Inc. was founded in 2018 by Drs. Austin Sendek and Lenson Pellouchoud, with the goal of empowering companies to apply cutting-edge A.I. approaches to accelerate their in-house R&D. Aionics has since become a recognized leader in the field of battery informatics, guiding research efforts at universities, high-visibility battery startups like Form Energy, and international corporates like Showa Denko in Japan.
The Aionics cloud-based materials informatics platform was launched in 2019; among the first users was Cuberg, Inc., an innovative lithium metal battery startup that has since been acquired by European giant Northvolt. Prof. Venkat Viswanathan of Carnegie Mellon University joined the company as Chief Scientist in 2020 after being inspired by Aionics’ rapid growth and success in driving improved R&D outcomes across the industry.
Today, Aionics is committed to providing the best tools, data, and models, so materials innovators can spend less time on data infrastructure and more time on the activities that build lasting internal expertise and enduring company value.
Our timeline
Venkat launches SEED: System for Electrolyte Exploration and Discovery.
Austin publishes the first ML-guided screening of battery materials study.
Austin presents this work in Venkat's group seminar at CMU.
Inspired by Austin's work, Venkat publishes ML-guided screening study for solid electrolytes to suppress dendrites.
Austin begins materials informatics consulting as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence
Aionics is founded in close partnership with data science incubator Rho AI, and Lenson joins as the technical lead.
Venkat receives ARPA-E award for ML-accelerated energy materials discovery.
Aionics, Inc. spins out of Rho AI incubator as standalone corporation.
Venkat joins as Chief Scientist.
The Aionics platform expands beyond ML materials discovery to include cycle life prediction, process optimization, searchable materials databases, and technoeconomic sensitivity analysis.
Meet our team

Dr. Austin Sendek
Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Lenson Pellouchoud
Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Venkat Viswanathan
Chief Scientist

Constantine Athanitis
Data Scientist

Sahil Batra
VP of Marketing & Growth

Kezia Badulid
Operations Manager

Dr. Peter Schindler
Senior Scientist

Kristine Badulid
Finance

Eugen Bleck
Web Developer

Tyler Martin
Finance

Sibora Seranaj
Data Scientist
Meet our interns
Meet our amazing group of summer 2021 interns! We are so thrilled to have these individuals on our team.
Scientific Advisory Board
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Dr. Chris Tassone SLAC National Laboratory
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Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu University of Chicago
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Prof. Evan Reed Stanford University
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Prof. Qian Yang University of Connecticut
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Prof. Yuzhang Li UCLA

Dr. Chris Tassone – SLAC National Laboratory
Dr. Tassone is a staff scientist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) lab, using synchrotron radiation to study structure-property relationships in organic semiconductors, catalytic materials, and additively manufactured parts. Since joining the lab in 2011, he has been a pioneer in applying informatics to data analysis and design of experiments.
His recent work includes a framework for data-driven discovery and optimization of synthesis recipes for nanoparticles of specific sizes.
Relevant Press and Publications
- Structural control of mixed ionic and electronic transport in conducting polymers (Nature Communications)
- Reappraising the Need for Bulk Heterojunctions in Polymer−Fullerene Photovoltaics. The Role of Carrier Transport in All-Solution-Processed P3HT/PCBM Bilayer Solar Cells (The Journal of Physical Chemistry C)
- Chloride in Lead Chloride-Derived Organo-Metal Halides for Perovskite-Absorber Solar Cells (Chemistry of Materials)

Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu – University of Chicago
Chibueze Amanchukwu is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. His research involves the design, synthesis, and understanding of ion transport in electrolytes and the development of AI/data science tools for batteries and electrocatalytic applications.
He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering as a NDSEG Fellow at MIT and was a TomKat Center Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.
Relevant Press and Publications

Prof. Evan Reed – Stanford University
Evan Reed is Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. His group focuses on theory and modeling of nanoscale materials for electronics and energy applications, and materials at conditions of extreme temperatures, pressures, and fields, and he is credited with publishing some of the first work in battery materials informatics.
Prof Reed holds a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and a B.S. in Applied Physics from Caltech. He was an E. O. Lawrence Fellow and staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before moving to Stanford in 2010.
Relevant Press and Publications
- Holistic computational structure screening of more than 12000 candidates for solid lithium-ion conductor materials (Energy and Environmental Science)
- Discovery of materials with extreme work functions by high-throughput density functional theory and machine learning (arXiv)
- Revealing the Spectrum of Unknown Layered Materials with Superhuman Predictive Abilities (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters)

Prof. Qian Yang – University of Connecticut
Qian Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut. Her research lies at the intersection of computational science and the physical sciences, with an emphasis on machine learning for materials, physics, and chemistry applications.
She completed her Ph.D. from the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University, and holds a B.A. in applied mathematics with computer science focus from Harvard College.
Relevant Press and Publications
- Learning reduced kinetic Monte Carlo models of complex chemistry from molecular dynamics (Chemical Science)
- L1 Regularization-Based Model Reduction of Complex Chemistry Molecular Dynamics for Statistical Learning of Kinetic Monte Carlo Models (MRS Advances)
- CSE Professor Qian Yang Awarded Grants to Optimize 3D Printing Methods (UCONN)

Prof. Yuzhang Li – UCLA
Yuzhang Li is an Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. Prof. Li has pioneered both engineering solutions and advanced diagnostic tools to make breakthroughs in next-generation batteries.
The synergy between these two broad research thrusts will bring practical applications in the short-term, while revealing new foundations to build long-term solutions. He obtained his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering as an NSF Fellow at Stanford.
Relevant Press and Publications
Commercial Advisory Board

Dr. Jeff Carbeck – 10EQS
Dr. Carbeck is an experienced executive, entrepreneur, and globally recognized technologist, whose mission is to drive sustainable and science-based innovation to address our most pressing global needs. Dr. Carbeck has held a number of leadership roles in the technology industry, including Chief Scientist at Nano-Terra, Co-Founder at Arsenal Medical, Founding CTO at MC10, and his current role as CEO of 10EQS.
Dr. Carbeck holds a Ph.D. in materials science from MIT and is a former faculty member of Princeton University.
Relevant Press and Publications

Dr. Joel Moxley – Echelon
Moxley is the co-founder of Foro Energy and Rho AI, and he is a founding investor and board member of Rubicon, Zero Mass Water, Pie Insurance, and Fervo Energy. Moxley is an angel investor in more than 30 early-stage technology companies, including Biota Technology. He actively invests from a small institutional fund into pre-seed, seed, and Series A financing rounds, and is a member of the investment team at Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Joel Moxley is a Precourt Energy Scholar and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT.
Relevant Press and Publications

Kerri Faber – Echelon
Kerri Faber is an entrepreneur and leader with 20 years of operational leadership including a diverse set of organizational best practices with established growth playbooks for companies ranging from early stage start-ups to large institutional organizations. Kerri currently serves as the CEO of Echelon, Co-founder and CEO of Larkly (Echelon Commerce) and Director of the State Bank of Wyoming Holding Company; formerly she held positions as President of Rho AI, Vice President at Rubicon, Fiserv and General Electric where she led the largest integration in GE’s history. She is a central advisor to Aionics on growth strategy and people management.