Bio

Mark Verbrugge started his professional career in 1986 with the General Motors Research Labs after receiving his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the College of Chemistry at the University of California (Berkeley).   In 1996, Mark was awarded a Sloan Fellowship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received an MBA.  Mark returned from MIT in 1997 to join GM’s Advanced Technology Vehicles (ATV) as Chief Engineer for Energy Management Systems.  In 2002, Mark rejoined the GM Research Labs as Director of the Materials and Processes Lab, which maintained global research programs ranging from chemistry, physics, and materials science to the development of structural subsystems and energy storage devices.  The Lab was later expanded in scope and became the Chemical and Materials Systems Laboratory.  

Mark has published in topic areas associated with electroanalytical methods, polymer electrolytes, advanced batteries and supercapacitors, fuel cells, high-temperature air-to-fuel-ratio sensors, surface coatings, compound semiconductors, and various manufacturing processes related to automotive applications of structural materials; he has about 200 patents, patents pending, and trade secrets associated with these topic areas.

Mark was a Board Member of the United States Automotive Materials Partnership LLC (2002-2023) and the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (1997-2023), and is an adjunct professor for the Department of Physics, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.  After retiring from GM in 2023, Mark became an Affiliate of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.    

Mark’s research efforts resulted in his receiving the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award and the Energy Technology Award from the Electrochemical Society as well as GM internal awards including the John M. Campbell Award for research accomplishments, twice the Charles L. McCuen Award for inventions substantially influencing GM products, and twice the Boss Kettering Award, the highest technical award given by GM.  Mark received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Council for Automotive Research, three R&D 100 Awards (2017, 2019, and 2022), and an Edison Award (2023).  Mark is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.