Co-Investigators

University of Southampton

Nuria Garcia Araez

Nuria is an Associate Professor of Electrochemistry at the University of Southampton and EPSRC Early-Career Fellow to study redox mediators in Li-O2/S batteries. She was awarded Best Young Spanish Electrochemist (2012) and is an expert in the fundamental characterisation of battery reactions and development of operando techniques. She has pioneered the application of redox mediators to alter the reaction mechanism and suppress degradation of Li-O2 batteries and has developed new tools for the rational development of Li-S batteries (e.g., first Li-S-electrolyte phase diagram to predict performance, GITT to quantify polysulphide transport, impedance to study tortuosity).

Cranfield University

Daniel Auger

Daniel is based in the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing at Cranfield University. His research looks at ways to exploit estimation and control techniques in vehicle and energy storage applications, particularly in the context of fast model calibration and battery management.  Daniel uses carefully designed hardware-in-the-loop experiments to replicate real-world battery behaviours early in a product lifecycle, and then uses formal system identification techniques, control-oriented estimation techniques and computer science to produce models and state estimation software for incorporation in real-time battery management systems.

Daniel is currently working on the application of reduced-order physics-based models for fast model calibration and estimation, control of hybrid battery systems and state estimation in lithium-sulfur batteries.

University College London

Dan Brett

Dan is a Professor of Electrochemical Engineering at UCL and (alongside Paul) is the co-Director of the EIL. His research specialises in the engineering of electrochemical power systems and energy materials. He has been recognised by the DeNora Prize (ISE) and Baker Medal (ICE). He is the UCL Director of the National Centre for GridScale Energy Storage, Director of the UCL Advanced Propulsion Lab and UCL Director of the CDT in Fuel Cells. His research is being commercialised through the spin-out companies Amalyst and Bramble Energy.

University of Surrey

Qiong Cai

Qiong is a Professor in Sustainable Energy and Materials, a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, and Theme Leader on Chemicals for Net-Zero within the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey. Her research interests are in design and development of energy materials for sustainable energy conversion and storage using batteries, hydrogen electrolysers, fuel cells, and catalytic chemical conversions. Her work covers atomic-scale materials modelling (using DFT and MD simulations), and meso-scale materials engineering (using CFD, finite element, and 3D pore-scale lattice Boltzmann method), to combine fundamental understandings of materials chemistry with material physics and engineering. She has collaborated widely with experimentalists across disciplines to unravel fundamental mechanisms. Her group also work on experimental research for developing new materials and novel technology solutions. 

University of Birmingham

Neil Champness

Professor Neil Champness began his academic career at the University of Southampton with a B.Sc. (1989) and PhD (1993) under the supervision of Prof. Bill Levason. Following postdoctoral studies, under the supervision of Prof. Gill Reid he moved to the University of Nottingham in 1995 as a Teaching Fellow in Inorganic Chemistry. He took up an appointment as a Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry (1998), was promoted to Reader in Chemistry (2003) and to the Chair of Chemical Nanoscience (2004). In 2021 he moved to the University of Birmingham as the Norman Haworth Professor of Chemistry and he is currently the Head of the School of Chemistry. In recognition of his research he was awarded the Bob Hay lectureship of the RSC Supramolecular Chemistry Group (2005); the RSC Corday Morgan Medal (2006); the RSC Supramolecular Chemistry Award (2010) and the RSC Surfaces and Interfaces Award (2016). He is a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Awardee (2011-2016) and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, IUPAC, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the European Academy of Sciences and a Member of Academia Europaea. In 2011 he was named as one of the top 100 most cited chemists of the previous decade and he has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher. He is currently an EPSRC Established Career Fellow (2019-2023).

University of Cambridge

Manish Chhowalla

Manish Chhowalla is the Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science. His research interests are in the fundamental studies of atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). In particular, his group studies the optical and electronic properties of different phases of 2D TMDs. He has demonstrated that it is possible to induce phase transformations in atomically thin materials and utilize phases with disparate properties for field effect transistors, catalysis, and energy storage.

Prior to Cambridge, Prof. Chhowalla was a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. Before that, he was a doctoral student in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University Cambridge and Churchill College. After his doctorate and Royal Academy of Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship, Professor Chhowalla worked in industry where he developed applications for “amorphous diamond”.

University of Cambridge

Andrea Ferrari

Andrea Ferrari is Professor of Nanotechnology. He is the Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology. He is Professorial Fellow of Pembroke College.

Cranfield University

Abbas Fotouhi

Abbas Fotouhi received his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology in 2011. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre at Cranfield University. Before joining Cranfield University in 2014, he was with the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIRO) at the University of Technology in Malaysia. Dr Fotouhi’s expertise is in dynamic systems modelling, simulation, optimization, and control. In addition, he has extensive practical and algorithmic experience in applying AI and Machine Learning techniques to engineering problems. His current research includes electrified vehicle powertrain systems, batteries, and transportation system optimization. Dr Fotouhi has supervised more than 50 MSc and PhD students and his total writing portfolio lists over 60 publications. He is an Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Automotive Innovation journal and an editorial board member of Neural Computing and Applications Journal. Dr Fotouhi is also a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and a fellow of the Faraday Institution in the UK.

University of Oxford

Georgina Gregory

Georgina’s research interests focus primarily on application driven design, synthesis and characterisation of polymers. Current goals include polymers for next generation rechargeable batteries, flexible electronics and fundamental structure-property correlations of mixed conductors. A particular emphasis is the synthesis of sustainable polymers using bio-based resources and controlled polymerization strategies to enable novel plastic functionalities. By utilizing controlled polymerization strategies, such as ring-opening polymerization, that allow precise functional group spacing, architecture and chain length, Georgina seeks to aid our fundamental understanding of structure-property relationships to meet specific application challenges.

University of Cambridge

Clare Grey

Clare Grey is a chemist and expert in the application to materials of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), a physical phenomenon that allows observations of atomic nuclei. In particular, she uses NMR to study rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and their potential for use in energy storage applications that benefit the environment. Clare and her team developed NMR methodology to monitor structural changes that occur during the operation of a battery. Her research has helped us to understand how batteries charge and discharge, and has also clarified the physical properties of a number of technologically important materials.

Clare now investigates the effect of local structure and electronic properties on LIB performance and is testing wider applications of the technology. Her work has introduced LIBs for use in combination with new renewable energy sources and to the field of transportation. Clare’s research has been recognised by several awards, including the Günther Laukien prize in 2013, and the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 2014.

Clare serves as the PI on the Faraday Institution Battery Degradation project.

University College London

Rhodri Jervis

Rhodri Jervis graduated from Balliol College, Oxford in Chemistry in 2008 and after a short time working for a medical research spinout in his home town of Swansea obtained his PhD in fuel cell catalysis from University College London in 2015. After a post-doctoral research position in redox flow batteries he took up a position as lecturer in Chemical Engineering in UCL in 2018. His research interests focus on studying energy materials using a combination of electrochemical and x-ray techniques.

Rhod serves as the project lead for the Faraday Institution Battery Degradation project.

University of Nottingham

Lee Johnson

Lee Johnson received his first degree from Newcastle University, after which he completed a PhD and post-PhD Fellowship in physical chemistry and electrochemistry at the University of Nottingham. He then joined the research group of Prof Sir P.G. Bruce FRS at the University of Oxford, where he studied the elementary processes taking place within the lithium-O2 battery. In 2017, he was awarded a Nottingham Research Fellowship, University of Nottingham, followed by an EPSRC Fellowship in 2018, both to support study of next-generation batteries. In 2019 he was promoted to Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry. His current research interests focus on understanding interfacial reactions, degradation, and charge transfer, in electrochemical energy devices.

Imperial College London

Anthony Kucernak

Prof. Anthony Kucernak (ARK) B.Sc., Ph.D,. CChem. MRSC, is a professor of Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, and has extensive experience in the study of various aspects of solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells, supercapacitors, and the design of new electrochemical techniques. His group currently studies a large number of aspects of fuel cell systems ranging from the development of new electrocatalysts, the development of new techniques to characterise and study electrocatalysts, the development of fuel cell electrodes, and the development of new methods to characterise fuel cells.

Imperial College London

Monica Marinescu

Monica is interested in understanding how physical and chemical processes impact the behaviour of energy storage devices in applications. This involves identifying the mechanisms that limit behaviour under real conditions, which is done by building electrochemical and physical models. Monica uses experimentally observed behaviour to parametrise and validate these models, and use them further to explore ways in which their performance can be improved. She also synthesises this knowledge into reduced order models, which can be used for control algorithms in a given application.

Monica is currently working on lithium ion batteries, lithium sulfur batteries, supercapacitors and Li-ion capacitors.

University College London

Tom Miller

Thomas Miller is a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering and the Electrochemical Innovation Lab (EIL). He gained his MChem (2009) and PhD (2014) at Warwick University, before moving to UCL.  He holds on an EPSRC fellowship aimed at developing next-generation supercapacitors and high-power energy systems from fundamentals to device scale. He is an expert in nanomaterials creation, characterisation and electrochemistry, as well as the in-operando understanding of materials for energy storage using electrochemical scanning probe techniques.

University of Nottingham

Graham Newton

Graham Newton received his M.Sci. (2005) and Ph.D. (2009) from the University of Glasgow under the guidance of Prof. Lee Cronin. His doctoral studies focused on the synthesis of polynuclear coordination compounds and the use of cold-spray ESI-MS as a means of tracking their self-assembly. Upon completion of his doctorate he moved to the University of Tsukuba to work with Prof. Hiroki Oshio on a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship, investigating the synthesis and properties of multi-stable transition metal clusters. He became an Assistant Professor at the University of Tsukuba in 2011, before moving to the University of Nottingham as a Nottingham Research Fellow in April 2015.

University of Oxford

Mauro Pasta

Prof. Mauro Pasta (FRSC) is a Professor of Applied Electrochemistry in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the SOLBAT (solid-state batteries) project as part of The Faraday Institution. His research interests encompass electrochemistry and materials chemistry, with a primary focus on developing innovative materials for electrochemical energy storage. With expertise in battery chemistries beyond Li-ion, he has published 89 papers, with an h-index of 42 and over 14000 citations. Additionally, he holds 18 patents and patent applications. As a co-founder of three battery startup companies, Natron Energy, Cuberg and Project K, Prof. Pasta is dedicated to translating his research into real-world solutions.

University College London

Alex Rettie

Alex Rettie is a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at University College London (UCL) since January 2019. His expertise is in the experimental discovery and characterisation of electrochemical energy materials and their incorporation into devices, with a focus on electronic and ionic charge transport.

Prior to joining UCL, he was a post-doc at Argonne National Laboratory where he focused on materials design and total scattering techniques. He received his Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015, investigating metal oxide photoelectrodes and his M.Eng. degree (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Edinburgh.

Coventry University

Alex Roberts

Professor Alexander Roberts is Chair of Energy Storage at Coventry University and is Theme Lead for Energy Storage research. He has over 15 years’ experience engaging in energy storage research, working from materials discovery through to device development and design, and testing and characterization. He founded the Cell Prototyping Lab at CU, from which he leads in the translation of lab-based discoveries to demonstrator prototypes. He currently holds a range of UKRI and commercial R&D and consultancy contracts focused on cell development and testing, across a range of companies and energy storage technologies, including component and cell manufacturers and developers from the UK, Europe, and North America. His research interests currently include the relationship between materials properties and processing and their effects on device performance, and the improvement of cell design and manufacturing processes for a range of applications.

Imperial College London

Magda Titrici

Magda is a Professor of Sustainable Energy Materials at Imperial College London working on sustainable carbon materials and their applications in energy storage and conversion. She has many awards in recognition of her research including the 2018 RSC Corday Morgan Prize. She is a world leader in sustainable synthesis of novel carbon structures and compounds and their application to electrochemical devices, and has extensive experience in Li-S batteries, and notably has a recent review on functional binders in Li-S.

University of Nottingham

Darren Walsh

Dr Darren Walsh is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry in the School of Chemistry. He was born and attended school in Dublin. After obtaining his PhD from Dublin City University, he left Ireland and took up a research position at the University of Texas in Austin. He is currently Associate Professor of Physical in the School of Chemistry and runs a research group interested in electrochemistry. The group works on a range of electrochemical topics, many of which are related to electrochemical energy storage and conversion. He is the author of over 50 original research articles and invited book chapters in the areas of physical and analytical electrochemistry. He also enjoys bringing his science to the public. He performs chemistry demonstration lectures for general audiences and is a presenter on the Periodic Table of Videos, an award-winning chemistry channel on YouTube.

Darren is the EDI Champion and the Training Champion for LiSTAR.