About
Dr. Rob Gitzendanner –President
Dr. Rob Gitzendanner is a highly accomplished technology leader with a career-long focus on battery safety, reliability, and risk mitigation in the design and development of advanced batteries and energy storage systems. He brings deep expertise in lithium-ion cells, batteries, and active materials, with particular emphasis on safe battery and system architecture, abuse tolerance, qualification, and lifecycle safety for mission-critical applications.
Dr. Gitzendanner earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Cornell University. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he worked alongside Prof. Peter Bruce (now Sir Peter Bruce FRS, FRSE, FRSC, at Oxford), where his research strengthened the scientific foundation underlying electrochemical performance and safety.
Dr. Gitzendanner joined Yardney Technical Products in Pawcatuck, CT where he worked across the full battery development lifecycle, including fundamental chemistry development, safe cell and battery design, assembly and testing, and qualification for extreme environments. His responsibilities also included proposal development, contract negotiations, program management, scheduling, and budget execution. During this time, Dr. Gitzendanner supported high-reliability programs ranging from the Mars Phoenix and InSight landers and the Juno mission to Jupiter, to terrestrial defense platforms such as the B-2 Stealth Bomber and the Global Hawk UAV—programs requiring uncompromising safety, fault tolerance, and mission assurance.
Following Yardney’s acquisition by EaglePicher Technologies, Dr. Gitzendanner continued in senior technical leadership and customer-facing roles, including serving as General Manager of the East Greenwich, Rhode Island facility. In this role, he oversaw safe manufacturing operations, quality systems, EHS, maintenance, and production execution while maintaining strong customer engagement and operational performance.
Dr. Gitzendanner later became the Technical Fellow at EaglePicher, where he focused on enterprise-wide battery safety and technical strategy, supporting multiple chemistries and production lines. He played a key role in developing long-term technical roadmaps, safety frameworks, and customer-aligned solutions to meet evolving mission requirements. Throughout his career, he has been recognized for embedding safety-driven rigor into engineering organizations while enabling innovation, scalability, and sustained customer trust.