#FaradayPathways Peter Slater, University of Birmingham

Peter Slater’s career has led him from a PhD at the University of Birmingham to being senior lecturer at the University of Surrey, and back again to Birmingham as Professor in Materials Chemistry. He shares with us the importance of creating a positive research environment, and how he supports the next generation of battery scientists.

Peter’s passion for science began in secondary school and led to him completing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. He was the first person in his family to go to university.

After enjoying his final year research project, he decided to stay on at Birmingham to pursue a PhD, focused on high temperature superconductors.

“I had a great time doing my PhD and my supervisor, Colin Greaves, was a huge support to me. It was a very exciting time because it was when high temperature superconductivity in cuprates had just been discovered and so there was a great deal of interest surrounding this topic. The 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in this area.”

After his PhD, Peter did a further 5 years postdoctoral research at Birmingham, before moving to a post- doctoral position at the University of St Andrews, under the supervision of Professor John Irvine.

After 3 years he moved to the University of Surrey for his first academic position, where he worked mainly on solid state electrolyte materials, including Li ion conductors for solid state batteries.

“It was a time when the University of Surrey was looking to expand. I was appointed alongside Stephen Faulkner, who now works at Oxford, and Nikolai Kuhnert, who’s now at Jacobs University in Germany. It was nice to have them there when things didn’t go to plan, and we always managed to cheer each other up.

“John Irvine and the St. Andrews technical team continued to support me after I moved to Surrey. For example, I contacted them about the measurements of kit that I needed to build for conductivity measurements, and they volunteered to make parts for me!”

Peter Slater in the lab After nearly 10 years at the University of Surrey, Peter returned to Birmingham to take up the role as senior lecturer, before being promoted to professor in 2013.

“I think a lot has changed in the past 5 years in terms of what universities are looking for when choosing professors. There is now more focus on the research excellence framework, and whether you have papers in high impact factor journals, which I feel is a sad change, as it omits researcher’s wider research and mentoring contributions.”

Peter gains the most fulfilment from his career from seeing his students succeed. During his time at Birmingham he has supported many early career researchers (ECRs).

“I think when you become an academic, you can either be the person who is just focused on their career, or you can be the person who actually wants to advance science. I would much rather be the latter, and part of that involves inspiring the next generation of researchers. From my perspective, the people who are most valued are those that think of others and support people in their research group.”

Peter explains that one of the most important ways of supporting ECRs is being approachable and present in the lab.

Photo of Peter in the lab “It can be a struggle to find the time, but I still enjoy making new materials, and I think it is important for researchers to see you there and for you to be available to talk to if there’s an issue.

“I try to always make time to have a morning coffee with my group. It allows everyone to exchange ideas or just have a general chat and provides new people with the chance to get to know everyone.”

Peter encourages ECRs to invest time in their research group and create a positive research environment.

“Ultimately as an academic you can’t do it all yourself. A positive group culture will help you to succeed and will attract new researchers to join your group. It’s important to get away from only focusing on your research project and instead try and collaborate as a team.”

Peter was recognised as Researcher Development Champion in the 2023 Faraday Institution Community Awards in recognition of his efforts and achievements in going above and beyond what would normally be expected in the role of supervisor or mentor to guide early career researchers in their research and career paths.

The awards panel cited a wealth of examples of excellent practice (including EDI initiatives) and proactive dedication to developing researchers, reaffirmed by testimonials from grateful beneficiaries, highlight the extensive benefits of this investment of time.

And his research?

In 2021, Peter was awarded a Faraday Institution Industrial Fellowship to work with Echion Technologies to improve lithium-ion battery energy densities and charge time.

“This fellowship was an excellent fit for me. It gave me the opportunity to spend more time in the lab and to learn about key industrial aspects. It was a successful collaboration, which led to a patent and the fellowship has been extended for another 2 years.”

“I have also really benefited from the research community that the Faraday Institution has created. It has led to very successful collaborations. The main example of this would be the ReLiB (Recycling and Reuse of EV Lithium-ion Batteries) project. This is one of the broadest of the Faraday projects in terms of expertise. It links us at Birmingham with researchers in Newcastle, Edinburgh and beyond, who we would never have otherwise linked with because we are in completely different research areas.”

Peter has also supported many FUSE interns through their work in STEM outreach.

“It has been extremely beneficial, particularly for creating educational resources about batteries. The FUSE interns brought enthusiasm and interesting ideas, like Sophia Constantinou’s ‘Baking a Battery’ graphic, or Emily Hanover’s conversion of the battery Jenga resource to apply to lithium iron phosphate. The success of this programme at Birmingham is owed to Lizzie Driscoll, who was instrumental in supporting the interns.”

This #FaradayPathways post was written by Nancy Stitt, the Science Communications Intern, and published September 2023.