Grace Villalpando

Graciela V. Villalpando, Ph.D., is a materials scientist and chemist with over seven years of experience in advanced materials characterization techniques. She specializes in battery materials and electrochemistry, nanomaterials, semiconductors, air-sensitive materials, and magnetic materials.

Dr. Villalpando has led and supported research projects involving battery fabrication and testing, advanced-materials synthesis and characterization, and spatially resolved electrochemical measurements, providing scientific analysis and technical guidance to researchers across more than five laboratories. Her work encompasses experimental design and laboratory testing, materials synthesis, and microscopy, spectroscopy, and electrochemical methods. She has expertise in working with highly volatile and air-sensitive materials. 

Dr. Villalpando possesses a broad technical background in battery materials, electrochemical testing, and advanced materials synthesis. She applies characterization methods including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM/TEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy and related scanning probe techniques (AFM, KPFM, CAFM, and SECCM) to establish composition-structure-property relationships and evaluate structural, chemical, electronic, magnetic, and electrochemical behavior. Her electrochemical and battery experience includes electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry, electrode slurry formulation, cell assembly, and testing of lithium-metal, solid-state, silicon, and graphite battery systems. 

Before joining Exponent, Dr. Villalpando served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she built and managed the Battery Fabrication and Testing Facility. She earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Materials Science from Princeton University, where she worked on chemical exfoliation and 2D magnets. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University.