Dr. Babu Chalamala has recently joined the University of Texas at Dallas as a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He holds the Jonsson School Distinguished Chair in Engineering. Until October 2025, he served as a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. Earlier, he was Head of the Energy Storage Technology and Systems Department and Program Manager for Grid Energy Storage at the laboratory. Prior to joining Sandia in 2015, he was a Corporate Fellow at MEMC Electronic Materials/SunEdison where he led R&D and product development in energy storage technology.

Earlier, as a research staff member at Motorola and Texas Instruments, he made contributions to vacuum microelectronics and flat panel display technologies. He also had founding roles in two startup companies. He is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power and Energy Society and a Fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, Materials Research Society, and the National Academy of Inventors. In 2024, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the IEEE USA Harry Diamond Memorial Award. He was past chair of the IEEE PES Energy Storage and Stationary Battery Technical Committee. He currently serves as Vice President of Conferences and Meetings for IEEE PES and Chair of the Grid Interfaces Committee of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council.