Cody A. Friesen

Appointments

Education

• Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Materials Science & Engineering, 2004
• B.S.E., Arizona State University,
Materials Science & Engineering, 2000

Principal Scientific Interests

New Paradigms in Thermodynamics & Surface/Interface Physics; Potable Water Science; Electrochemical Energy Devices; Physical Electrochemistry; Metal-Air Batteries; Ionic Liquid Physical Electrochemistry; Thin Film Growth.

Principal Business Interests

Executing Hardtech Solutions to the Grandest of Challenges; Driving Tech into Emerging Market Pain points, Conscious Capitalism that Lifts Up All Stakeholders and Minimizes Externalities

Motivating Principles

Leading with Love; Driving Zero Inertia into Team Decision Making; Striving for a Divergent Team; Teddy Roosevelt’s Man in The Arena Defines how I think about Success and Failure; Meeting Chaos with Calm is a core mantra; and Always Working to Deploy My Privilege

Selected Honors And Awards

• 2025 Edison Award, Source Global
• 2022 The McNulty Prize, The Aspen Institute, $150,000
• 2021 Class of National Academy of Inventors – Senior Member
• 2019 The Lemelson-MIT Prize, $500,000
• 2019 Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer, BloombergNEF, Zero Mass Water
• 2019 Best of CES, Zero Mass Water
• 2019 Braddock Scholar
• 2018 CES Innovation Award, Zero Mass Water, SOURCE, Smart Home Category
• 2015 Henry Crown Fellow, The Aspen Institute
• 2009 TR35 – Selected as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under 35 years of age by MIT’s Technology Review
• 2009 Young Alumni Achievement Award, Arizona State University
• 2008 Faculty Achievement Award – Defining Edge Research – Young Investigator, Arizona State University.
• In recognition of Membraneless Fuel Cell work.
• 2007 New Innovator of the Year. Arizona Technology Enterprises.
• Awarded for two patent disclosures: one related to membraneless fuel cells, the other for an electrochemical ammonia synthesis process
• 2005 NSF CAREER Award – “Stress and Structure Evolution in Ultra-Thin Heteroepitaxial Metallic Films”
• 2004 Awarded the Lawrence Fellowship by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (awarded to <0.5% of applicants) (Declined to accept ASU appointment)

Selected Service

• 2015 – 2024 ASUio – Founder & Chair of national hardtech student entrepreneurial competition; Over $2MM in awards to winning competitors, with over $150MM in follow-on investment to competitors
• 2010-2016 Member of the Clinton Global Initiative; Active in both The Haiti Action Network and in the Syrian Refugee Relief program
• 2013-2016 Member of the US Manufacturing Council, International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce. Co-Chair Energy Sub-committee. Advises Secretary of Commerce on US Manufacturing Competitiveness
• 2010 – 2014 Avnet Innovation Lab – Founder & Board Member

101 Granted United States Patents:

Patent Applications

• Over 400 active patent matters worldwide. Selected patent matters (16 patent families):
• 1 US-2025073670 Hygroscopic polymer composites and related manufacturing methods
• 2 US-2024159025 Thermal desiccant systems and methods for generating liquid water
• 3 US-2024102269 Systems and methods for generating water from air
• 4 US-2023390696 Systems and methods for generating liquid water from air
• 5 US-2023130872 Systems for generating water with waste heat and related methods therefor
• 6 US-2022411297 Systems for controlled treatment of water with ozone and related methods
• 7 US-2022307240 Systems and methods to produce liquid water extracted from air
• 8 US-2022176314 Systems and methods for generating liquid water using highly efficient techniques that optimize production
• 9 US-2022156648 Systems for constructing hierarchical training data sets for use with machine-learning and related methods therefor
• 10 US-2022039341 Systems for generating water for a container farm and related methods therefor
• 11 US-2020209190 Systems and methods for detecting and measuring oxidizing compounds in test fluids
• 12 US-2020279144 Redox active polymer devices and methods of using and manufacturing the same
• 13 US-2019355996 Metal-air cell with performance enhancing additive
• 14 US-2019280318 Water recapture/recycle system in electrochemical cells
• 15 US-2019344214 Systems for generating water using exogenously generated heat, exogenously generated electricity, and exhaust process fluids and related methods therefor
• 16 US-2019123340 Integrable redox-active polymer batteries

Selected Federal Research Grants

• 2009 DOE ARPA-e Metal-Air Ionic Liquid (MAIL) Batteries - $6.4MM (37 awarded/4000 proposals)
• 2011 DOE ARPA-e GRIDS AMES (Advanced Multifunctional Energy Storage) - $3.75M
• 2012 DOE ARPA-e Electrochemical CO2 Capture (Co-PI; PI: Dan Buttry) - $4M
• 2013 DOE ARPA-e An ACTIVE Program to Revolutionize EV Adoption - Advanced Cells for Transportation via Integrated Vehicle Energy – $2M

Selected Invited Talks & Keynotes

• SOURCE Keynote, CEMEX Annual Meeting, February 2024
• “The Road to Resilience: Preparing our Food and Water Supply Chain for the Future”, CES, January 10th 2024
• TEDx Boston, Planetary Stewardship, Saturday November 11th, 2023
• Fifth Wall Climate Summit, September 11th, 2023
• “Solving Water” Elemental Interactive, April 25th, 2023
• “This Isn't Easy: A Dialogue on Exercising Moral Courage”, Skoll World Forum, Oxford, UK, April 13th, 2023
• UN Water Conference, Australian Consulate, March 2nd, 2023
• “Democratizing Drinking Water” Plenary Presentation, Aspen Ideas: Miami, March 7th, 2023
• “Share the Shower, Save the Water”, Invited Panel (Virtual), Web Summit 2020, Lisbon, Portugal, December, 2020
• “Technology for Social Equity”, Invited Roundtable (Virtual), Web Summit 2020, Lisbon, Portugal, December, 2020
• “Governor’s Celebration of Innovation & Annual CEO Retreat”, Closing Keynote (Virtual), AZ Commerce Authority, Scottsdale, AZ, October, 2020
• “Using Sunlight and Air to Provide Clean Water for the Navajo Nation”, Invited Talk (Virtual), Unreasonable Impact COVID-19 Response Global Virtual Summit, New York City, NY, July, 2020
• “Importance of considering the most vulnerable communities in scaling climate adaptation and resilience solutions”, Invited Roundtable (Virtual), Finance for Adaptation Technologies & Solutions Roundtable (FASTR), New York City, NY, July, 2020
• “4th Annual Tech Innovation Summit & CONVERGE”, Invited Panel, InvisionAZ, Scottsdale, AZ, January, 2020
• “Innovation: Deploying Tech for Environmental Progress”, Keynote, Environmental Defense Fund, Alameda, CA, November, 2019
• “The Future of Water”, Art Gallery Talk, Dubai, UAE, October 2019
• “Seaside Chat with Madeleine Albright”, Lemelson Award Reception, Boston, September 2019
• “Solving for Abundance: Reimagining the Human Relationship to Water”, Keynote, Conscious Capitalism Annual Conference, Phoenix, April 2019
• “Infrastructure-Free Distributed Water”, EmTech Asia, Singapore, January 2019
• "Crisis Prevention: Water Shortages”, CES, Las Vegas, January 2019
• “Building Companies out of Resilient Technologies”, Invited Panel, CES 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada, January 2019
• “SOURCE, the Future of Water”, The Economist's Green Business Summit, “Voices from the Future, Abu Dhabi, April 2018
• “Making Perfect Water from Desert Air: How Zero Mass Water is Making Phoenix a Hub for Water Abundance”, Keynote, Phoenix Startup Week, February, 19th 2018
• “Zero Mass Water|Oman and the 4th Industrial Revolution”, Keynote, Oman Vision 2040, Foresight Forum, Muscat, Oman, December 6th 2017
• “Driving Tech to Humanity’s Painpoints: Drinking Water Solar Panels”, Keynote, Hello Tomorrow Summit, Paris, France, October, 2017
• “Driving Tech to Humanity’s Painpoints”, Guest Lecture, UT Austin, September, 2017.
• “Innovation Driving Competitiveness”, Keynote, Avnet – Learning from the Leaders, September, 2015.
• “Air Batteries: A Tall Order Met by Ionic Liquids”, Keynote, Queen’s University, Belfast, October, 2014.
• “Innovation Driving Competitiveness”, Keynote, Rockwell Automation, Corporate Leaders Roundtable, May, 2014.
• “Oxygen Reduction in Ionic Liquids – Tuning Proton Thermodynamics to Optimize Metal-Air Batteries”, Meeting of the Electrochemical Society, May 2011, Montreal Canada
• “ORR in Ionic Liquids”, “Symposium on Beyond Lithium Ion” Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, June 2011.
• “Electrochemical Materials Science: Proton Energetics in Protic Ionic Liquids and Surface Stress Measurements in Electrocatalysis”, Purdue University, March 2010.
• "The Electrocapillarity Response of Cu{111} Electrodes to Changes in Equilibrium Adatom Density”, C. Friesen, Gordon Research Conference, New Hampshire, July 2008.
• "Oxygen Reduction and Hydrogen Oxidation in Protic Ionic Liquids" C. Friesen, Mesilla Workshop. Allen J. Bard Organizing. February 2008.
• “Fundamental Aspects of Surface Stress Evolution during Electrodeposition”, C. Friesen, International Society of Electrochemistry, Banff, Canada, September 2007.
• “Interphase Structure effects on Electrocapillarity” ICCG Conference, C. Friesen, Salt Lake City, August, 2007.
• "Atomic-Scale Surface Structure Effects on Stress Evolution during Thin Film Growth", C. Friesen, AACGE Conference, Stanford Sierra Camp, June 2006.
• “Reversible Stress Evolution in Transition-Metal Thin film Growth & Catalytic Properties of Transition-Metal Ultra-Thin Films” C. Friesen, C.V. Thompson, and N. Marzari. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, February, 5th, 2004.

Selected Publications

• E.E. Switzer, R. Zeller, Q. Chen, K. Sieradzki, D.A. Buttry, C. Friesen, “Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Ionic Liquids: The Addition of Protic Species” J. Phys Chem. C, 117, 8683 (2013).
• L. Tang, X. Li, R.C. Cammarata, C. Friesen, and K. Sieradzki, “Electrochemical Stability of Elemental Metal Nanoparticles”, JACS, 132, 11722 (2010).
• L. Tang, B. Han, K. Persson, C. Friesen, T. He, K. Sieradzki, G. Ceder, “Electrochemical Stability of nm-scale Pt Particles in Acidic Environments”, JACS, 132, 596 (2010).
• L. Mickelson, C. Friesen, Direct Observation of Bifunctional Electrocatalysis during CO Oxidation at Ru =0.37/Pt{111} Surfaces via Surface Stress Measurements, JACS, 131, 14879 (2009).
• J. Bautista Martinez, L. Tang, J.P. Belieres, C. A. Angell, C. Friesen, “Hydrogen Redox in Protic Ionic Liquids and a Direct Measurement of Proton Thermodynamics”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 113, 12586 (2009).
• J.R. Hayes, A.M. Engstrom and C. Friesen, “Orthogonal Flow Membraneless Fuel Cell”, J. Power Sources, 183, 257 (2008).
• L. Mickelson, Th. Heaton, C. Friesen, “Surface Stress Observations during the Adsorption and Electrochemical Oxidation of CO on Pt{111}”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 112, 1060 (2008).
• J.K. Kennedy and C. Friesen, “The Effect of Oxygen Adsorption on Cu{111} Thin Film Growth Stresses” J. Appl. Phys. 101, 054904 (2007).
• Th. Heaton and C. Friesen, “Pt{111} and Au{111} Electrocapillarity: Interphase Structure, the pzc, and Oxygen Reduction”, J. Phys. Chem. C. 111, 14433 (2007).
• C. Friesen, “Thermodynamic Separability of Ultra-Thin Film Surfaces and Interfaces” Surf. Sci. 600, 1012 (2006).
• T. Trimble, L. Tang, N. Vasilijavic, N. Dimitrov, C. Friesen, C.V. Thompson, S. Seel, J. Floro, M. van Schilfgaarde and K. Sieradzki, “Anion Adsorption Induced Reversal of Coherency Strain”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 166106 (2005).
• C. Friesen, C.V. Thompson, Comment on "Compressive stress in polycrystalline Volmer-Weber films" Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 229601 (2005).
• C. Friesen and C.V. Thompson, “Correlation of Reversible Stress Evolution in (111)-Oriented Homoepitaxial Ag and Cu Thin Films to an Evolving Surface Defect Population”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 056104 (2004).
• C. Friesen and C.V. Thompson, “Reversible Stress Relaxation during Precoalescence Interruptions of Volmer-Weber Thin Film Growth”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 12 (2002).
• C. Friesen, N. Dimitrov, R.C. Cammarata, and K. Sieradzki, “Surface Stress and Electrocapillarity of Solid Electrodes”, Langmuir, 17, 3 (2001).