George Crabtree, energy trailblazer remembered as a ​“great listener” and ​“boundless explorer”, dead at 78

Distinguished researcher led Argonne’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research and made pivotal discoveries in high-temperature superconductors.

George Crabtree, widely recognized and admired as a brilliant, passionate materials scientist and champion of superconducting materials and better batteries, died Jan. 23. He was 78.

As the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) and a preeminent proponent of decarbonization, Crabtree reached the pinnacle of a career that spanned parts of seven decades at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and that advanced a number of different disciplines and inspired colleagues and friends.

“I never could have imagined when I first came to Argonne as an undergraduate student that one day I would be directing a big energy storage hub,” Crabtree said recently. ​“That was the farthest thing from my mind. Now I consider that to be one of my best experiences.”

“As a scientist and a leader, George worked with true integrity and exemplified Argonne’s mission of engaging with some of the biggest challenges facing humanity,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. ​“His interest in science and genuine concern for others resulted in a leadership style that was empowering and motivating to generations of colleagues. George had the exceptional ability to bring people together to achieve impactful science for our country.”

George Crabtree was born on Nov. 28, 1944, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and moved with his family to Illinois when he was 2.

As a boy, Crabtree was ​“fascinated by the natural world and sought to understand it in all of its complexity,” said JCESR research integration leader Lynn Trahey, whom Crabtree mentored for the past ten years. ​“He told me that when he was young, he was just as interested in biology as physics — he was a boundless explorer.”

Crabtree first joined Argonne as an intern in 1964 while a college student at Northwestern University. He was hired full-time in 1969 while pursuing his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he took night classes while working.

In the first part of his career in the last decades of the 20^th century, Crabtree’s work focused on the behavior of superconducting materials, in particular their behavior in high magnetic fields. At the time, these materials were mysterious and not well understood, and their mystique held appeal for Crabtree. ​“For me, it was always a curiosity question,” he told the MRS Bulletin.

Crabtree helped pioneer early research into high-temperature superconductors, which were discovered in 1986. In them, he discovered new phases of superconducting vortex matter. ​“The properties of vortices are important because they are responsible for all the electromagnetic behavior in high-temperature superconductors that could eventually make them useful for applications,” said Argonne materials scientist Ulrich Welp

“George was a great leader because he had high standards; he elevated everyone around him because he really set an example for everyone else,” said Argonne materials scientist Wai-Kwong Kwok.

“His leadership style was full of kindness and curiosity,” Trahey said. ​“He wanted to learn and explore and also have a positive impact on society — he was unlimited in what he wanted to learn if it could help him communicate challenges and inspire people.”

Kwok recalled camping trips that Crabtree would organize for the other scientists in Argonne’s materials science division and their families. ​“He’d be the one up before everyone else making breakfast by the campfire,” he said. ​“In everything, he was truly an endearing person; he cared about more than just work, and his optimism and his hope would just rub off on you.”

Crabtree’s work on superconductors gained him recognition as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. At Argonne, he was named a Distinguished Fellow. In 2003, Crabtree won the second ever Kammerlingh Onnes Prize, an international award given to scientists doing work in superconductivity.

“George was always a great listener, he would listen to everyone’s input and come up with a solution everyone could agree upon,” Kwok said. ​“There would always be something for everyone.”

In 2012, Crabtree switched gears professionally when he was named director of JCESR. ​“George was educating himself on battery science along with the postdocs and graduate students,” Trahey said. ​“He was never afraid to ask a question, and he treated 19-year-old students and heads of state with equal respect.”

As director of JCESR, Crabtree oversaw experiments on a wide range of beyond lithium-ion battery chemistries, including redox flow batteries and multivalent batteries. ​“In the later stage of his career, George was deeply passionate about fighting climate change, and used all his skills to encourage conversations and solutions,” Trahey said.

“George was a leader in many Basic Energy Science (BES) advisory committee studies and BES workshops. He helped to identify priority research directions for basic science from grand challenges for discovery research to foundations for energy technologies. These reports have literally shaped the BES strategic planning and portfolio for the past decade,” said Harriet Kung, deputy director for Science Programs for DOE’s Office of Science. ​“He was a true renaissance scientist — impacting many disciplines across energy and condensed matter physics. He will be greatly missed by the DOE community.”

In addition to his work in JCESR, Crabtree also served as co-chair of Argonne’s Action Collaborative, a group of researchers and administrators dedicated to eradicating sexual harassment in the workplace. ​“George cared about making work and life better, more inclusive and more fair for everyone,” Trahey said. ​“He was someone who believed in you and inspired you to believe in yourself.”

Crabtree is survived by his wife Barbara, a stepson and three grandchildren.

The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, is a major partnership that integrates researchers from many disciplines to overcome critical scientific and technical barriers and create new breakthrough energy storage technology. Led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, partners include national leaders in science and engineering from academia, the private sector, and national laboratories. Their combined expertise spans the full range of the technology-development pipeline from basic research to prototype development to product engineering to market delivery.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.