Plamen Atanassov

Plamen Atanassov

Plamen Atanassov graduated University of Sofia (1987) with MS in Chemical Physics & Theoretical Chemistry and received PhD in Physical Chemistry/Electrochemistry from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences where he was a scientist at the Central Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources (now Budevski Institute of Electrochemistry & Power Systems). He moved to the United States in 1992 and joined University of New Mexico (UNM) as researcher and later as faculty member with the Chemical & Nuclear Engineering department. He founded UNM Center for Emerging Energy Technologies (CEET), was Associate Dean for Research of UNM School of Engineering and later served as director of UNM Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CMEM). Starting October 2018 Plamen Atanassov joined University of California Irvine (UCI) where he is a Chancellor’s Professor with the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, holding a courtesy appointment with Materials Science & Engineering. His educational efforts are directing towards creating a PhD program in Electrochemical Science & Engineering.

Plamen Atanassov materials for energy programs are focused on development of novel electrocatalysts He has published some 485 peer-reviewed papers (bringing ~44K citations and Google Scholar h-index of 107). He supervised 45 completed PhD dissertations at UNM and UCI and had advised more than 30 postdoctoral fellows and research faculty. Atanassov is a co-inventor of 68 issued US patents, some of which have been licensed and are at the core of several fuel cell catalysts and fabrication technology.

Plamen Atanassov is a Co-PIs California’s DOE hydrogen hub: Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES). Plamen Atanassov is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2018), The Electrochemical Society (2018) and the International Society of Electrochemistry (2020) of which he is currently serving as President (January 2025 – December 2026).