Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th March 2026 The Slate Conference Centre, University of Warwick
Faraday ECR Conference 2024
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About the Faraday Institution
The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation. It brings together research scientists and industry partners on commercially valuable projects to reduce battery cost, weight, and volume; improve performance and reliability; and develop whole-life strategies including recycling and reuse.
The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation. It brings together research scientists and industry partners on commercially valuable projects to reduce battery cost, weight, and volume; improve performance and reliability; and develop whole-life strategies including recycling and reuse.
Professor of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
About
Professor David Howey received his MEng degree from Cambridge University (2002) and PhD degree from Imperial College London (2010) on the topic of heat transfer in electrical machines. He also worked as an engineering consultant between 2002 and 2005.
In 2011, David moved to Oxford where he is now Professor of Engineering Science and Tutorial Fellow at St Hilda’s College. His current research interests are focused on modelling and managing energy storage systems, for electric vehicles as well as grid and off-grid power systems.
Professor David Howey’s research expertise is in modelling, diagnostics and control of electrochemical energy devices and systems. Lithium-ion batteries are his current main focus, and he also has interests in sodium-ion batteries, lead-acid batteries, flow batteries, and supercapacitors.
His group’s aim is to improve performance and cost by predicting dynamics and lifetime, estimating temperatures and faults, and measuring how and why devices perform in the real world. This requires them to address fundamental issues in modelling, instrumentation and data processing.
David works extensively with industry in the UK, Germany and Korea, on topics including accelerated ageing, remaining lifetime estimation and optimal control of grid storage, with Continental Automotive GmbH, Jaguar Land Rover, Siemens UK, and others. In 2012 he won a Samsung GRO Award on lithium-ion battery modelling, which was renewed, and also led to a separate R&D contract directly with Samsung Applied Institute of Technology in South Korea. He was also UK PI on a 3-year, $1.2m project funded directly by the Korean Government on microgrids and storage, and has been involved in many large collaborative UK projects, funded by EPSRC, the Faraday Institution and InnovateUK. In 2017 his group spun-out a battery management systems company called Brill Power which won the Shell New Energy Challenge in 2017 and the Japan New Energy Challenge in 2018.
David is a Senior Member of the IEEE, an editorial board member for the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, and an editorial board member for Oxford Open Energy.
Magda Titirici
Professor and Chair in Sustainable Energy Materials, Imperial College London
About
Magda Titirici received her PhD in Materials Chemistry from University of Dortmund in Germany. She then joined the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces as a Postdoctoral Fellow and later become a Group Leader, starting her independent research on sustainable carbon materials in 2006. Magda received her Habilitation in 2013 from University of Potsdam/Max-Planck Institute. She then moved to UK, to Queen Mary University of London as a Reader in Materials Science and in 2014 she was promoted to Full Professor. Magda moved to Imperial College London in January 2019 to take up a Chair in Sustainable Energy Materials.
Magda is the author of over 250 articles and is included in the Global Highly Cited Researchers (Clarivate Analytics) over the past four years. She is the author of 13 book chapters and one book. She also hold 7 patents. Magda has received the Rosenhein Medal from IoM3, an Honorary PhD from University of Stockholm in 2017, the Chinese Academy of Science President Fellowship, the Royal Society of Chemistry Corday-Morgen prize in 2018 and a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies fellowship in 2019.
Her current research interests involve sustainable materials with focus on carbon and carbon hybrids produced via hydrothermal processes, waste recycling into advance products, avoidance of critical elements in renewable energy technologies and the development of truly sustainable clean energy storage and conversion paths including alternative chemistries beyond Li, flexible and structural supercapacitors made from lignin/cellulose, carbon-based O2 electrocatalysis, CO2 capture and conversion and exploring the optoelectronic properties of nanocarbons. Her research is supported by UKRI, EU, Royal Society, Royal Society of Engineering and industry.
Carlton Cummins
Entrepreneur and Design Engineer
About
An entrepreneur and design engineer focused on solutions to global energy and waste challenges. Carlton’s career spans from electric Motorsport to renewable energy and has worked in Central American & European markets. With a specialization in sustainable design and clean energy systems he’s achieved international recognition such as Forbes 30 under 30 list 2017, Shell Global Innovator 2017 and Shell Entrepreneur of the Year 2016.
Carlton was most recently the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Aceleron, a UK-based tech start-up that specializes in designing lithium-ion batteries that can be repaired and upgraded, resulting in greater value extraction and reduced carbon footprint. Aceleron’s batteries, which hold multiple patents, have been used in a variety of applications, ranging from renewable energy storage to lightweight e-mobility.
As the CTO, Carlton was responsible for leading the technology strategy for several battery platforms, managing product certification and testing, and delivering multiple patents to strengthen the company’s intellectual property.
Ana Sobrido
Professor of Sustainable Energy Materials, Queen Mary University of London
About
Professor Sobrido holds a prestigious UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship to develop alternative electrodes for redox flow batteries. In particular, she is interested in using sustainable resources such as biomass waste to replace fossil-derived compounds. Her research group uses scalable processing techniques such as electrospinning and 3D printing that enable the production of freestanding materials that can be easily inserted in energy devices, including redox flow batteries, fuel cells and electrolysers. Her group also focuses in devising new in situ characterisation methods that can provide useful insight in structure-property relationship, key for the optimisation of electrochemical systems. She sits in the committee of the UK Redox Flow Battery Network, is an active member of STFC Battery Steering Committee and the Director of the London Energy Materials & Devices Hub.
Pam Thomas
Chief Executive Officer, The Faraday Institution
About
Professor Pam Thomas FinstP Cphys became the Chief Executive Officer of the Faraday Institution in September 2020 after a decade in senior management roles at the University of Warwick that culminated in a 5-year period as a Pro Vice Chancellor (Vice President) for Research. Pam is currently also a council member of the Science Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) and a Fellow of the Clean Growth Leadership Network (CGLN). Retaining her professorial status at the University of Warwick, she chairs the Social Inclusion Committee in her non-executive capacity as an Academic Vice President.
Her personal research is in the field of functional ferroelectric materials where she has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles and two patents, one of which became the basis of a spin-out company, Pro KTP, to exploit the invention of a new low-conductivity variant of the nonlinear optical material potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP). She was educated at the University of Oxford, where she took a BA (Hons) in Physics and a DPhil on the subject of Optical Activity in Crystals in the Physical Crystallography Group of the Clarendon Laboratory.
Laura Driscoll
Senior Materials Scientist, UKBIC
About
Dr Laura Driscoll currently works as a Senior Materials Scientist at UKBIC. In her current role, she helps support customers as they develop promising products from lab to large-scale production. Laura obtained her PhD in 2016 at the University of Birmingham with the thesis title ‘Synthesis, Characterisation and Modification of Materials for Na-ion Batteries’. After spending a brief period in industry, she returned to the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in 2017. During her 5 years as a research fellow, she worked as part of the Faraday institution ReLiB and CATMAT projects, with her work from the former developed into one of the three patents currently secured by the project.
Rowena Brugge
R&D Manager, Nyobolt
About
Dr Rowena Brugge is the R&D Manager at Nyobolt, working in the Materials R&D team in Cambridge, focusing on understanding and developing Nyobolt’s fast charging battery materials and cells. The team has close links with Professor Clare Grey’s research group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge.
Rowena studied chemistry at the University of Oxford, before moving for her PhD at the Department of Materials at Imperial College London, which examined the properties of materials and interfaces in all-solid-state batteries. She then worked with Professor Clare Grey as a Research Associate part-time alongside being a Scientist at Nyobolt, prior to her current role.
Tom Heenan
Co-Founder and CEO, Gaussion
About
Dr Tom Heenan is the CEO and co-founder of Gaussion, a London-based start-up that develops magnetic systems to improve battery performance. He is the lead inventor of MagLiB technology, and a Faraday Entrepreneurial Fellow. Throughout his career he has accumulated numerous awards and published several high-impact publications; Nature (DOI:10.1038/s41586-023-05913-z). He is an internationally recognised engineer and entrepreneur, and has previously acted as: a Visiting Foreign National at NASA; the co-creator of an open-source battery database (DoE, USA); a consultant for various companies; and has acted as an expert-witness on high-profile court-cases.
James leads technique development for scattering tomography techniques (XRD-CT, 3DXRD, PDF-CT) at the UK’s national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source. He works in close collaboration with the NXCT (National X-ray Computed Tomography) consortium, consisting of the University of Manchester, University of Southampton, University of Warwick and University College London (UCL), and his research focuses on operando electrochemical characterisation.
Mahfuz Kamal
About
An aspiring entrepreneur and power electronics enthusiast, Mahfuz is deeply committed to innovating in the field of sustainable energy. Completing a Ph.D. at Newcastle University with the Faraday Institution, he is at the forefront of researching advanced battery discharge strategies in recycling applications. His work focuses on developing methods for rapidly discharging end-of-life batteries, and harnessing their power. Through this research, Mahfuz aims to make significant contributions to sustainable energy and advocate for the responsible management of battery waste.
Rob Timms
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Ionworks
About
Robert Timms is a Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Ionworks and a core developer of the open-source battery modelling package PyBaMM. He is passionate about open science and delivering real-world impact from research through commercial activity. Before founding Ionworks, Robert was a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, where his research focused on developing fast and accurate models for the coupled electrochemical-thermal-mechanical behaviour of Li-ion cells. This research was conducted within the Multi-Scale Modelling Fast Start Project of the Faraday Institution. Robert gained his PhD from the University of East Anglia in 2018, where he worked on problems related to the safe handling of energetic materials.
Gabriel Pérez
Instrument Scientist, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
About
Gabriel is an Instrument Scientist at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source who works within the Crystallography Group developing the facility’s programme in the area of battery materials. He specialises in the design and development of electrochemical cells for in-situ neutron and muon studies. He also supports the user programme on the Polaris and GEM instruments providing highly specialised, local, expertise to visiting research teams utilising them for their scientific endeavours.
Jen Hack
Lecturer in Sustainable Materials, University of Sheffield
About
Jennifer joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield in 2023 as a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow. She completed her PhD at University College London in 2021 working on fuel cell characterisation. After several years working on battery technologies, first through an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship studying zinc-air batteries, followed by a Project Lead role on the Faraday Institution’s LiSTAR project, Jennifer joined the department of Materials Science and Engineering to focus on hydrogen research. Jennifer’s research interests surround the complex relationship between materials morphology, performance and degradation in electrochemical devices. Her fellowship will use 4D imaging methods, including X-ray and neutron CT, to study morphology evolution in electrolysers and will translate the insights gained into designing new structures for various electrolyser components, including the catalyst layer and porous transport layer.
Nicola Courtier
Faraday Institution Research Fellow - University of Oxford - Multi-scale Modelling
About
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.
Rhod Jervis
Associate Professor in Electrochemical Engineering, UCL
About
Rhodri Jervis is an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering working in the Electrochemical Innovation Lab, specialising in the characterisation of energy conversion and storage materials and devices using advanced X-ray techniques. He 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. He is currently the Project Lead for the Faraday Institution project on Li ion Battery Degradation.
Ian Ellerington
Technology Transfer Director, The Faraday Institution
About
Ian joined the Faraday Institution after six years in central government where he worked on designing and implementing innovation programmes in the energy sector. He was responsible for the government’s energy innovation programme in the Department of Energy and Climate Change and continued in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as Head of Disruptive Energy Technologies and Green Finance Innovation.
Ian is an engineer who graduated from University of Cambridge with an M.Eng. in Manufacturing Engineering in 1993 and is now an experienced technical manager who has worked with small, medium and large corporates, academia and government. His early career was spent working on Gas Turbine engines with the Ministry of Defence before moving to project management at QinetiQ where he was responsible for research programme management and delivery of the large test programmes. He left QinetiQ to join Meggitt Defence Systems that developed and operated new technical products. As UK General Manager Ian set up and ran a new R&D and manufacturing facility.
James Robinson
Lecturer in Advanced Propulsion, UCL
About
James Robinson a Lecturer in Advanced Propulsion based at the Advanced Propulsion Lab. He is interested in the development of high-energy propulsion systems and diagnostic techniques to improve the lifetime of electrochemical devices and is the Project Lead for the UK’s national lithium sulfur research programme, LiSTAR, which includes 9 other universities and over 60 researchers. His work particularly focusses the development of solutions, including Li-S batteries, which will find use on hard to decarbonise areas of transport including heavy vehicles and aerospace applications and on system critical measurements using an application inspired approach, to ensure developments translate to a full device or system scale and maximise the potential real world impact of the research.
