#FaradayPathways Daisy Thornton, Rimac Energy
Daisy Thornton transitioned to industry after completing her PhD in Materials Engineering at Imperial College London, as a member of the first Faraday Institution PhD cohort. She now works a Cell Degradation Engineer at Rimac Energy. Daisy shares with us how she remained resilient during her PhD, why she decided to move to industry, and the importance of remaining curious and open minded.
After enjoying chemistry at school, Daisy went on to study a 4-year integrated master’s degree in chemical physics at UCL.
“Initially I chose chemistry as my degree, but then realised that I didn’t enjoy the organic chemistry aspects. I spoke to one of the supervisors who suggested that I switch to chemical physics. This had more of a focus on quantum mechanics and maths, which was much more suited to my skillset, and I really enjoyed it.”
“Chemical physics was quite a male-dominated degree. I had times in my physics lectures where I was the only female in the room. At first, I found this intimidating, but eventually it motivated me to work hard and become good at the topics.”
In her third year, Daisy studied a module that focused on synthesising and testing a battery cathode material, which highlighted the full range of chemistry and engineering techniques that went into creating a cell. This inspired her to investigate batteries for her final year research project.
“I felt strongly that I wanted to do something that would help the planet. This project was led by our green chemistry lecturer, and it focused on the synthesis of magnesium-ion batteries.”
Daisy’s enjoyment of this project led to her wanting to pursue a PhD.
“I never thought I was going to do a PhD, but I loved the research process of my 4th year project. It raised so many more questions about batteries that I didn’t have the time to answer in my masters, so it made me want to continue the research.”
In 2018, Daisy moved to Imperial College London to begin her PhD focusing on developing a new technique to try and understand gas evolution in batteries as part of the Faraday Institution’s Degradation project.
“There are a lot of side reactions that take place that are bad for the overall health of the cells, and gases are often released as a by-product. If we can track these gases being formed, we can gain insight into the degradation mechanisms taking place and identify what factors exacerbate them.
“My PhD supervisor Ifan Stephens was very supportive of me and gave me a lot of flexibility to manage my own work.”
Daisy enjoyed her PhD but had to be resilient during the process of technique development.
“In the first few years I was trying to get this technique to work so I could use it to study degradation mechanisms. A lot of the time during the technique development phase something would go wrong, but I had to keep telling myself that I would try again tomorrow.
“The moment when I first got the technique working was one of the proudest moments of my career so far. I was all alone in the lab and all of a sudden it started working and I burst into tears because I was so relieved.
“I was also proud to apply for a patent for this technique with Spectrolnlets. It was valuable to learn about patenting and licencing processes, and they are now selling the technique with my adaptation, which is exciting.”
During her PhD, Daisy set up a number of battery research labs, which is a very unusual and challenging task for someone at this stage of their career.
“I learnt so much from this process, from designing the lab and defining the equipment requirements, to the tender processes and managing the contractors, and even building a lot of the equipment and set ups. It was highly rewarding to then be able to use these labs for novel research.”
Daisy’s PhD was funded by the Faraday Institution, which meant that she was part of a cohort of PhD researchers. What opportunities did she gain from this?
“I feel extremely lucky that I could be involved with the Faraday Institution. It allowed me to get to know people from all over the UK working on different areas of battery research. When you are doing a PhD, it is easy to have tunnel-vision and only focus on your project, but Faraday allowed me to put my research into the wider context and gain perspective.
“I also loved all the training programmes and courses that were organised. They were super helpful, and I learnt a lot that I can now use as I go further into my career!”
In March 2023, Daisy had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion at a careers event for 13+ year olds at the Royal Institution. Watch the video of the event (at 39:20 and 47:00).
After completing her PhD, Daisy moved from academia to industry, and began working as a Cell Degradation Engineer at Rimac Energy, which is a business unit within Rimac Technology that specifically works on stationary energy storage. What led her to pursue a career in industry?
“It was a really difficult decision for me, as I loved working in a research group during my PhD. I spoke to a lot of people and realised that because battery research is so in demand, there is a lot of flexibility to move between industry and academia.
“I decided that I was ready for a change and wanted to explore what impact I could have in creating a more sustainable future from industry. I was put in touch with Teddy Szemberg-O’Connor, who told me about the project at Rimac Energy, and it sounded very exciting.”
Daisy is working in the Advanced Battery Software team of Rimac Energy, which is developing algorithms to better understand and control the state of battery health.
“My role has a lot of scope for conceptualisation and freedom to come up with new ideas, which is something that I would have missed from academia. I feel lucky in this position that I get the best of both worlds.”
What would Daisy say are the main differences between industry and academia?
“Although I was working within a collaborative research group during my PhD, I was only focusing on my own project, whereas in Rimac Energy, we are all working towards building this new technology together. Also, in academia there is more freedom to explore ideas, no matter what their outcome is, whereas in industry, you have to consider if it is worth the time and money. This can make it more rewarding as you can see a direct output from your work.”
What advice would Daisy give to early career researchers?
“Try to talk to as many people as possible and be open minded and curious. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do a PhD and it was only through speaking with a lot of people that I realised it would be a great fit for me.”
Daisy’s transition to Rimac Energy is relatively recent, but does she have any future career aspirations?
“For now, I’m taking my own advice and being open minded and seeing what comes. I’m really enjoying the work that I’m doing and would love to see that develop and see the team grow.”
#FaradayPathways story written by Nancy Stitt, Science Communications Intern, published August 2023.
Find out more about Rimac Technology.
Lecaarn more about the Faraday Institution’s PhD Enrichment Programme.