PhD Students

Work Package 1

Kofi Coke

Kofi is a PhD student at the Electrochemical Innovation Lab in UCL working on developing electrodes and characterising degradation - based mainly around Work Package 1. He earned his Chemistry MChem at the University of Warwick in 2020, where he developed an insatiable appetite for the study of energy, electrochemistry, and materials.

Work Package 4

Josh Cruddos

Josh is a PhD student based in Electrochemical Innovation Lab at UCL working on the development of anode-free Li-S batteries as part of work package 4. Josh graduated with a Masters in Chemistry (MChem) with research in industry from the University of Liverpool in 2019. During his degree he completed an industrial placement at Innospec Ltd. working on performance chemicals.

Work Package 1

Esther Gray

 Esther is a PhD student based in the 2DMD group at the University of Cambridge working on batteries with lithiated molybdenum disulphide as cathode for Li-S batteries. Esther graduated with a master’s in chemistry (MChem) with a year of industry experience from the University of Bradford in 2022. During her degree she worked in the energy technologies department at CRODA, now part of Cargill.

Work Package 1

I-Chuan (Ally) Hsia

Ally is a PhD student at Imperial College London in the Department of Chemical Engineering, working on the development of lignin-based cathodes for structural Lithium-sulfur batteries. She is supervised by Dr. Heather Au and Prof. Magda Titirici. Ally completed her master's studies at the University of Cambridge (Manufacturing) and Imperial College London (Materials Science). As part of her master's dissertation, she worked on Lithium-ion battery degradation.

Work Package 1,2

Ji Hu

Ji Hu is a Phd student based at UCL- Electrochemical Innovation Lab (EIL) working on Composite cathode material synthesis and Solid electrolyte development to improve performance of Li-S battery as Part of Work package 1&2. After completing his Bachelor degree in Material engineering at the Monash University in Melbourne in 2013, he worked for a battery company in China for 4 years. In 2019, He joined EIL at UCL to start his Phd degree.

Work Package 1

Jinglin Jiang

Jinglin is a PhD student based at Imperial College London working on polysulphides trapping of cathode as part of Work Package 1. He obtained his Master of Research degree in nanomaterials at Imperial College London in 2019 and completed his undergraduate studies at Sun Yat-sen University (China) in 2018.

Work Package 1,2

Michael Johnson

Michael is a PhD student based in the Electrochemical Innovation Lab at UCL working on lithium polysulfide solution characterisation as part of Work Package 1 and 2. He graduated with a Masters in Chemistry (MChem) at the University of Liverpool in 2019. Here he was introduced to the field of material discovery, synthesising new cathode materials and solid-state electrolytes for lithium-metal batteries.

Work Package 2

Magdalena Muhr

Magdalena is a PhD student based at the University of Nottingham, working for the NAMI Group and collaborating with her industrial partner Lubrizol. Her current research interests lie in improving of Lithium-Sulfur batteries by developing additives and redox mediators using experimental and computational methods. Magdalena completed her Bachelor's (Chemistry) and Master's programme (Chemistry and Chemical Engineering) at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria, where she graduated with distinction in 2019.

Work Package 4

Lizzy Olisa

Lizzy is a PhD student at Imperial College London, working on lithium-sulfur batteries, using modelling and experimental methods. Lizzy graduated with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering (MEng) from University of Sussex in 2019. As part of her final year MEng project, she was part of an Electric Formula Student team who built an electric car, which included designing and building a Li-ion battery pack. 

Work Package 1

Bhavini Patel

Bhavini is a PhD student at Imperial College London, where her research focuses on the development and optimisation of lignin-derived carbon fibres for high-performance structural batteries using electrospinning techniques. Bhavini earned her master's degree in chemistry (MChem) from the University of Oxford in 2024. She was introduced to the battery sector during her Faraday FUSE Summer Internship. 

Work Package 1,2

Georgia Rowe

Georgia is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham working with Professor Neil Champness and Dr Graham Newton (University of Nottingham). She graduated with an MChem degree from the University of Lincoln in 2020 after spending her Master’s year at the Lubrizol Corporation.

Georgia's project is to investigate separators for Li-S batteries within Work Package 1 and 2.

Work Package 5

Yiheng Shao

Yiheng is a PhD student at the University of Oxford working with Prof. Paul Shearing. His research currently focuses on the visualisation of Li-S battery degradation in four dimensions. He obtained his master degree in Chemical Engineering (MEng) with honours from Imperial College London in 2024. Yiheng was introduced to Li-S batteries during his internship at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

Work Package 1

Matthew Tudball

Matt is a PhD student at UCL working on WP1. After graduating from the University of York and a year at Nanyang Technological University working on spray deposition of thin film solar panels; he now uses his spray deposition skills to improve the rate capability and sulfur loading of LiS batteries.

Work Package 1

Samantha Southern

Sam is a PhD student based across Imperial College London and UCL working on electrospinning carbon fibres for high performance structural Li-S batteries. She obtained her Materials Science MEng at the University of Oxford in 2018.