Syed Z. Islam

Dr. Syed Islam is a Staff Scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Islam leads a research team with a wide range of research interests including novel advanced materials and energy-efficient processes for energy technologies. The focus of his research is the development of energy-efficient, cost-effective and scalable separation technologies for various applications, including gas separations, separation and recovery of critical materials, and bioenergy separation. This also includes the recovery and separation of critical materials such as rare earth elements and lithium ion battery materials, semiconductor materials and bioenergy separations. Five of the technologies that Dr. Islam co-invented have been licensed to different industries for commercialization (six industry licenses). Dr. Islam received 2024 R&D100 Award, and the ORNL Innovation Award in 2020, 2023 and 2025.