Michael Henderson
GEM Fellow
Michael Henderson is not the same student and researcher that he was before he joined the Electrochemical Safety Research Institute for a 10-week fellowship. With renewed confidence and a major research project under his belt, he’s ready to embark on the next steps of his professional journey.
Henderson joined ESRI at UL Research Institutes as part of the National GEM Consortium, a nonprofit organization that offers fellowships to students pursuing graduate degrees in those fields. When he was choosing where to complete his fellowship, ULRI stood out because of the battery research being done by the research institutes.
Henderson’s work with ESRI focused largely on flow batteries, which are rechargeable batteries where an electrolyte flows through one or more electrochemical cells from one or more tanks. His work with ESRI creating a flow battery for testing has energized and motivated him to start his master’s in civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. “Flow batteries are an up-and-coming technology in renewable energy storage, and I’m excited to start looking at incorporating that in projects in graduate school,” Henderson said. “I have already found a professor who focuses on batteries in civil engineering that I’ll get to hopefully work with on future projects.”
ULRI-ULSE’s Student Engagement Program helped Henderson find his confidence and voice, he said. When he started his fellowship, he was nervous to share his ideas and thoughts as a rising graduate student. After speaking with his mentor at ULRI, he discovered just how valuable his ideas were and that it was many researchers’ first time doing certain projects, too. That shift in perspective allowed him to blossom throughout the remainder of his 10-week fellowship.
“Everyone felt like a family, and was so welcoming, kind, and encouraging,” he said. “Being a part of the Student Engagement Program made my time at ULRI very enriching and beneficial. It was great getting to meet different scientists and others who have all taken different paths that led them to ULRI.”
