Flow batteries are an emerging technology with the potential to overcome the biggest impediment to the green-energy transition: the lack of viable large-scale systems to store renewable energy.
Non-aqueous redox flow batteries, which use electrically charged ions dissolved in organic solvent-based liquids, promise affordability, scalability and effectiveness.
But a major obstacle is designing a membrane through which ions can flow in the liquid from one side of the battery to the other while preventing other materials from slipping through. This membrane needs to last for years, and that has proved difficult to achieve.
Associate professor of chemical engineering Geoffrey M. Geise co-leads a team at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science that is now patenting one of the first designs for a long-lived membrane that both increases conductivity and reduces permeability , moving this potentially transformative technology a step closer to implementation.
This is one of several societal challenges Geise has taken on through engineering, and it helps illustrate why he has received one of his field’s highest distinctions, the 2026 Permeance Prize for Mid-Career Excellence, given by the North American Membrane Society, or NAMS.
“The Permeance Prize a great honor,” Geise said. “I am grateful to my colleagues in membrane science and technology for helping to support and appreciate our research over the years. NAMS is the premier professional society for membrane scientists in North America, so this recognition is particularly meaningful to me.”
Geise is a chemical engineer who studies and develops permeable membranes used in essential infrastructure, including water purification, clean energy technologies and medicine.
“Our membranes act as selective filters that separate substances like minerals, ions or drug molecules in pharmaceutical production based on size, charge and other physical characteristics,” Geise said.
To do that, scientists have to thoroughly understand the membrane material’s chemical and mechanical properties.
Jeffrey R. McCutcheon, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Connecticut and the 2024 Permeance Prize winner, led Geise’s nomination for the prize.
“Geoffrey Geise’s most significant scientific contributions and research accomplishments in membrane science and technology focus on engineering and understanding chemical interactions in advanced polymers that are critical for addressing global challenges related to electrification, critical materials and water purification,” McCutcheon said.
For example, as a Ph.D. student, Geise drew attention in the desalination field as the lead author on the first paper to articulate a then-unexplained trade-off: that increasing salt selectivity decreases water permeability in polymer membranes. One of the first publications of his independent career as an assistant professor at UVA explained the trade-off — insight that informs water purification research today.
Since then, Geise has made other key discoveries, including a discovery now used in commercial desalination membranes to resist degradation from chlorine disinfectants, which has plagued the industry for decades.
Colleagues writing in support of Geise’s nomination said his work has helped fill knowledge gaps in liquid separations, desalination and ion transport.
“Geoff has brought a much-needed fundamental approach to understanding the permeation of various solutes in water through polymeric membrane selective layers,” said the 2025 prize winner Ayse Asatekin, an associate professor at Tufts University.
Geise’s lab is also among the few research groups in the country to develop expertise in dielectric relaxation spectroscopy to characterize polymers. This spectroscopic technique examines material characteristics that inform how ionic charges and molecules behave inside a material. The data they produce allow other labs to model candidate materials, where previous approaches failed.
He has used the technique to answer questions about ion-polymer interactions that scientists have struggled with for years in their quest to design more selective membranes. This work was published in 2024 in the Journal of Membrane Science , which named it an Editor’s Choice article.
Geise co-leads another pioneering project at UVA: a process to extract vast lithium reserves from salt brine lakes in the United States. The country needs lithium to make the batteries that power cellphones, computers and many other products, yet is almost entirely reliant on foreign suppliers.
“It’s hard to overstate Geoff’s impact,” said Ayman Karim , UVA’s Olsen Professor and chair of chemical engineering. “The flow battery and lithium extraction projects both have the potential to directly benefit people if they’re commercialized. But so much of his work is about enabling others — including his students — to engineer technologies for a better world. That personifies what we mean by ‘engineering for the greater good.’”
Caroline Morin, a Ph.D. student working on the lithium exaction project, said Geise’s focus on fundamentals runs throughout his teaching.
“Professor Geise has created a research environment that strongly values curiosity, rigor and learning,” Morin said. “His emphasis on understanding the basis of water and ion transport through polymer materials shapes how students in his group approach research and experimental design.
“He’s deeply invested in teaching and mentorship, whether through thoughtful feedback on research and communication or by encouraging students to pursue professional opportunities aligned with their career goals.”
Geise, who joined UVA Engineering’s faculty in 2014, quickly earned several young investigator honors — including NAMS’ Young Membrane Scientist Award.
He also received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award and was named a member of the 2020 Class of Influential Researchers by Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a publication of the American Chemical Society.
His lab has earned numerous best paper or editor’s choice selections and he serves as an editor of the Journal of Membrane Science Letters. He’s given nearly three dozen invited lectures. In 2024, he was selected by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a delegate for the second U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium.
Geise has received several University-wide honors for excellence in both research and teaching, in addition to school-wide teaching awards such as the Hartfield Excellence in Teaching Award. He is a three-time recipient of the Robert A. Moore Jr. Award in Chemical Engineering, which recognizes faculty for preparing students for careers in industry.
The Permeance Prize will be presented at ICOM 2026 , the International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes, which will be hosted by NAMS in July.