ECR Committee

James is the Project Lead on the LiSTAR project based at the Electrochemical Innovation Lab at UCL. Having undertaken his undergraduate studies at in Chemical Engineering at University College Dublin James completed his PhD in UCL after which he was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering UKIC Research Fellowship and EPSRC Doctoral Research Prize Fellowship. James’ research interests include the development of advanced diagnostics for electrochemical technologies and the design of new battery systems.

Mark Blyth is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bristol. He works on the Faraday Institution's multiscale modelling project, where he derives and analyses closed-form mathematical models of cells and packs. These are used to explore the impacts of thermal management on temperature and charge heterogeneity, to unpick how these effects impact the performance of engineering-scale batteries. He has collaborated with a range of UK battery startups to explore problems in cell modelling. Mark's PhD covered a mixture of nonlinear dynamics and experimental neuroscience; he has found that the necessary skills are just as applicable to battery cells as biological cells!

Dr Nicola Courtier is a Faraday Institution Research Fellow in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford.

Having obtained an MMath from Oxford in 2014, Nicola moved to the University of Southampton to study for a PhD in Mathematical Sciences, supported by the CDT in New and Sustainable Photovoltaics. She was subsequently awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize to continue her research on charge transport models of perovskite solar cells.

Nicola developed her interest in lithium-ion batteries when she joined the Faraday Institution’s Nextrode project to study the manufacture of lithium-ion battery electrodes. She is currently working on the optimisation and analysis of battery models with Prof. David Howey as part of the Multi-scale Modelling project.

Dr. Pooja Kumari is working as a Senior Cell Design Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover Automobile Company. She received her Ph.D. degree in 2020 on “Bi and its chalcogenides for all solid-state Li-ion batteries” from Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur, India (with close collaboration with Hiroshima University, Japan). She has significant expertise in developing novel electrode and electrolyte materials for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries.

Post-Ph.D., as a Research Fellow, she joined the Faraday Institution's “Battery Characterisation” project at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. She worked on in-situ/operando battery characterisation techniques (mainly focused on NMR spectroscopy and MRI) for Li-ion batteries with Dr. Melanie Britton. She conducted high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging of lithium plating and dendrites. Following that, she joined another Faraday Institution’s “Next Generation of Na-ion Batteries (NEXGENNA)” project at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, where she further honed her skills in synthesizing sodium titanate anode materials for Na-ion batteries and developed a fast and green synthesis route for sodium titanates.

Following her tenure at the University of Sheffield, she joined the Energy Innovation Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Her research work focused on the electrochemical performance of Li and Ni-rich cathode materials (using NMC and LFP cathodes), at high voltages in Li-ion half and full cells, utilizing different cell designs.
Currently, as a Senior Cell Design Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, she is working on the development of innovative battery cell designs for better battery performance in EV. She is working as an expert in the Battery Tech Vanguard project to develop novel battery chemistry for future JLR EV products. Additionally, she is working on the Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA) to investigate the root cause of failure for Li-ion batteries.

Adam Lovett is a Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL. After obtaining an MChem from Durham University in 2018, Adam moved to the University of Cambridge to pursue a PhD in Materials Science and Metallurgy under Judith Driscoll, focusing on vertically aligned nanocomposite thin films for battery applications. During his PhD, he was an affiliated researcher on the FutureCat project. In 2023, he joined UCL to work on the Faraday Battery Challenge collaborative R&D HISTORY project with Thomas Miller.

Adam’s current research interests are focused on two main areas: studying commercial battery electrodes with operando electrochemical atomic force microscopy and X-ray computed tomography; and the growth and study of battery-relevant thin films using advanced operando techniques.

Sean Scott is a Research Associate at the University of Leicester. In June 2023, he started his current position focusing on designing lithium-ion batteries for disassembly plus the characterization and relithiation of end-of-life materials as part of the ReLiB project. Prior to this he did a PhD, which was also associated with the Faraday Institution at the University of Leicester entitled ‘Alternative binders for simplified battery recycling’ under the supervision of Prof. Karl Ryder and Prof. Andrew Abbott.

Yige Sun is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, a MPLS divisional enterprise and innovation fellow, and a mentor in careers support network led by the University’s People and Organisational Development unit. She obtained an MS degree from Tsinghua University and a PhD from the University of Tsukuba. She was a junior researcher in the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan.

Her previous work was focused on the fabrication and structural design of graphene-based electrode in energy storage (batteries, supercapacitors, hybrid-capacitors).

She is currently researching surface analysis techniques for lithium-ion batteries, and the advanced manufacturing of smart electrodes (as part of the Faraday Institution Nextrode project). She also serves as a robotic project leader in the Oxford Robotics & Additive Manufacturing Society, and a supervisor of a 3D printing lab for the Oxford Materials Characterisation Service.

Outside of work, Yige is a member of the Oxford Archers Club and recently started to go to the gym.

After finishing a PhD in solid mechanics at University of Bristol in 2023, Simon Tonge joined the Faraday Institution's Nextrode project. His work is focused on evidence-based design of electrodes, by microstructure level finite element simulations and analysis of X-ray and neutron tomography data. Simon is based at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford where he is part of Professor Paul Shearing’s research group.

Zoë completed an undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham and is undertaking a PhD focusing on high power sodium-ion batteries, supervised by Professor Bill David, as part of the NEXGENNa project. Having undertaken a Faraday Undergraduate Summer Experience (FUSE) Internship in 2021 creating interactive electrode manufacturing resources, she was inspired to continue her studies and research into batteries and the energy sector. Zoë has a real passion and drive for research into new sustainable battery technologies and developing commercially viable alternative battery materials.