Heather Au
Work Package 1
Heather was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at Imperial College London working on cathode development as part of Work Package 1. She graduated with an MSci in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from the University of Cambridge and went on to gain a PhD from Imperial College developing covalent modification strategies on carbon nanomaterials. She has held postdoctoral research positions at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College, investigating the charge storage mechanisms in hard carbon anodes for sodium-ion batteries.
Heather is presently a Co-investigator on LiSTAR based at Imperial College London.
Yvonne Chart
Work Package 3
Yvonne was a PhD student at the University of Oxford working on developing stable Li metal anodes for use in Li-S batteries. She graduated from Northwestern University in the US in 2019, where her thesis focused on composite fuel electrodes for solid oxide fuel cells. She has also worked on Si anodes for Li-ion batteries as part of an internship in 2018 with the NanoGraf Corporation.
Michael Cornish
Work Package 2
Michael was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate based at Imperial College London working on macroscopic continuum models. He holds a B.Sc. in Economics and a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics. His PhD was in the Mathematics Department at Imperial College and covered developing reduced ordered models for ferrofluid flows from a generalised Naiver-Stokes equations.
Xiaoyu Dai
Work Package 1,2,3
Xiaoyu began LiSTAR phase 2 as a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at University College London working on LiS electrode microstructure characterization and modelling. She previously graduated with an MSc in Materials Science and Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) and went on to gain a PhD in Energy at the same university with a focus on numerical characterization and engineering of transport in morphologically complex heterogeneous media. We would like to thank Xiaoyu for her contribution to the project.
Sam Fitch
Work Package 4
Samuel is a Faraday Institution Research fellow based at the University of Southampton working on electrolyte developments and electrochemistry as part of Work package 2. He graduated with an MSc Chemistry by Research in 2016 and he is in progress to complete his PhD at the University of Southampton in 2020, evaluating metal nitrides as suitable negative electrode materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries.
Mengjun Gong
Work Package 5
Mengjun was a final-year PhD student working as a Research Assistant on the LiSTAR project, based at Imperial College London. She worked on developing new cathode materials to improve the kinetics of the Sulfur reaction. She studied the materials using Rotating Ring Disk Electrode, for greater implementation in a coin cell format. She achieved her BSc in Chemistry in 2018 and in 2019 she was awarded the Basil Furneaux Memorial Fund for her MRes Green Chemistry degree from Imperial College London. In the same year, she started her PhD in non-precious metal catalysts as cathode materials for fuel cells, completing in 2023.
Hua Guo
Work Package 3
Hua was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at the University of Oxford working on developing all-solid-state Li-S batteries as part of Work Package 3. He graduated with an MSci in Materials Sciences from Peking University and went on to gain a PhD from the University of Stockholm about the characterizations of solid-state inorganic materials.
Jen Hack
Project Lead
Jen was Project Lead on the LiSTAR project, based at UCL. Prior to joining the LiSTAR team, she held an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship at UCL Chemical Engineering, investigating zinc-air battery anode shape-change and failure. Jen received an MChem from Durham University in 2015 and her PhD in fuel cells from UCL in 2021. Her research interests focused on the use of X-ray and neutron imaging techniques for studying performance and degradation of electrochemical devices, as well as engineering electrode designs with enhanced properties to extend device lifetime and mitigate failure.
Sattwick Haldar
Work Package 1
Dr. Sattwick Haldar obtained a Bachelor's and Master's degree (2015) from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. He pursued his Doctoral Research and PhD (2015-2020) in Prof. Ramanathan Vaidhyanathan’s group at IISER Pune, India, focusing on Organo Polymer Battery and COF-Based Batteries. His key invention during this time was fast-charging organic electrode materials for Li and Na ion Batteries.
Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Sattwick Haldar worked as a Post-doctoral Scientist from 2020 to 2023 for three years and three months in Prof. Stefan Kaskel’s group at TU Dresden, Germany, focusing on Lithium-Sulfur battery, Lithium-Organosulfur Battery, and Aluminium-Sulfur Battery. A significant achievement during this period was the development of the Novel Metal-Organochalcogenide Battery.
Dr. Sattwick Haldar was a Research Associate at the Faraday Institution, starting in 2024, working in Prof. Magdalena Titirici’s group at the Chemical Engineering Department, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. His research focused on Standardizing Porous Carbon Hosts for High Performing Sulfur Cathode towards commercialization.
Alexander Kibler
Work Package 2
Alexander was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at the University of Nottingham working on the design, synthesis and application of redox mediators in next-generation batteries. After completing his MSc in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham in 2015, he completed his PhD in Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Nottingham 2019 investigating the electronic properties and photocatalytic activity of hybrid organic-inorganic polyoxometalates.
Alexander joined UCL in 2024 and is now a Co-I on the project.
Junhao Li
Work Package 3
Junhao was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at the University of Oxford working on developing solid-state Li-S batteries as part of Work Package 3. He gained a PhD from the University of Alabama in 2021, where he worked on lithium metal batteries based on the garnet-type solid electrolyte with a stable electrode-electrolyte interface.
Yi Li
Work Package 2
Yi Li was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, contributing to Work Package 2 with a focus on electrolytes and active additives. She has over seven years of experience in the development of conversion-type Lithium-Chalcogen batteries, specializing in cathode material preparation and lithium anode protection.
Zhuangnan Li
Work Package 1
Zhuangnan was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at the University of Cambridge working on cathode development as part of Work Package 1. After completing his MEng in material science at the University of Manchester, he gained a PhD in chemistry from University College London in 2020, investigating graphene-based materials for electrochemical energy storage.
We would like to thank all LiSTAR Phase 1 Research Fellows for their invaluable research and contributions to the first phase of the LiSTAR project which ran from 1st October 2019 to 31st March 2023. Phase 2 commenced on 1st April 2023 and will run to 31st March 2025.
Ali Nasrallah
Work Package 1,2,3
Ali was a Research Fellow based at the University of Surrey working on modelling Li-S batteries. Following a PhD at Cardiff University, Ali joined the University of Sheffield to work on modelling High Entropy Perovskites. In July 2023, he joined Prof. Cai's group as part of the LiSTAR project. He will be using atomic-scale modelling including Density Functional Theory and Ab initio Molecular Dynamics simulations to investigate novel electrolyte solutions and the Li metal-electrolyte interface for Li-S batteries, to unravel fundamental insights into the system and mechanisms for enabling long-cycle life, high energy Li-S batteries.
Rhodri Owen
Work Package 4
Rhod was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at UCL working on cell design and diagnostics as part of Work Package 4. He gained his MChem at the University of Bath where he went on to complete his Ph.D. working on the boundary between chemistry and chemical engineering. After completing post-doctoral research positions at the University of Bath and the University of Sheffield he joined the Electrochemical Innovation Lab at UCL in 2018 to study energy storage devices.
Georgia Rowe
Work Package 1,2
Georgia was a PhD student at the University of Birmingham working with Professor Neil Champness and Dr Graham Newton (University of Nottingham). She graduated with an MChem degree from the University of Lincoln in 2020 after spending her Master’s year at the Lubrizol Corporation.
Georgia's project investigated separators for Li-S batteries within Work Package 1 and 2.
Ismail Sami
Work Package 1
Ismail was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at the University of Cambridge. He completed his MPhys in Theoretical Physics at the University of Manchester, with a year abroad at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating with a MRes in Engineering at the University of Cambridge, he continued on to gain a PhD in developing layered materials for energy storage.
Mark Stockham
Work Package 5
Mark was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at the University of Southampton working on electrolyte development and electrochemistry as part of Work Package 5. Since January 2022, Mark worked as a Research Fellow on aluminium-sulfur and aluminium dual-ion batteries, also at the University of Southampton. After completing a BSc in chemistry and an MSc in materials chemistry, Mark gained his PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2022 investigating lithium garnet electrolytes for solid state lithium batteries.
Matthew Tudball
Work Package 1
Matt was a PhD student at UCL working on WP1. After graduating from the University of York and a year at Nanyang Technological University working on spray deposition of thin film solar panels; he used his spray deposition skills to improve the rate capability and sulfur loading of LiS batteries.
Ye Wang
Work Package 1
Ye Wang was a Faraday Institution Research Fellow based at University of Cambridge working on Work Package 1. She obtained her BEng from Xiamen University, China in 2015 in materials science and engineering. After that, she went to the Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (Strasbourg, France) for her Master (2017) and PhD study (2021) investigating chemical functionalization of 2D materials.