The Team

Patrick Grant FREng is the Vesuvius Professor of Materials and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Oxford University. His research takes place at the interface between advanced materials and manufacturing. Particular applications include electrodes for energy storage and advanced metallics for power generation. Many of his research projects are concerned with solidification behaviour in complex alloys, and/or the use of liquid metal, ceramic or polymer droplet and powder sprays to create unusual materials. All of his research work involves close collaboration with industry.

Rachel Smith is Professor of Particulate Manufacturing in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield, with expertise in particulate manufacturing across pharmaceutical, agri-chemical, consumer and battery manufacturing industries. Her research focuses on the development of micro-scale knowledge of particle-particle and particle-fluid interactions, and the use of this knowledge to advance mechanistic understanding of particulate manufacturing processes and product performance. Rachel holds a BEng (Hons) and PhD from the University of Queensland.​​​​​​

James Marco is a Professor of Battery Systems and Head of the Battery Systems Research Group at WMG, University of Warwick, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET). His research interests include: systems engineering, real-time control and systems modelling. In recent years this has focussed on the application of these generic techniques to underpin new battery system designs, models and control algorithms.

Matthew Capener has been a Lead Engineer in the Energy Innovation Centre at WMG, University of Warwick for over 5 years. Matthew holds a B.A. (Hons), M.Sci. (Natural Sciences) and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. His areas of research cover battery manufacturing and scale-up including, mixing, electrode fabrication and electrochemical testing of battery materials in standard and novel cell designs with a focus on higher power devices and next generation sustainable electrode processing.  All the research and development work has involved working collaboratively with Industry.

Jon Chapman is Professor of Mathematics and its Applications and Head of the Mathematical Institute at Oxford University. His research concerns the detailed mathematical modelling of batteries (and other physical systems), including electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical effects; he has particular expertise in asymptotic methods for systematic model reduction. He was instrumental in the formation of the open source software PyBaMM, and continues to be involved in its development.

Mona Faraji Niri is an Associate Professor of Battery Modelling at WMG, University of Warwick. She holds a PhD in Control Engineering and specialises in modelling, control algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) for dynamical systems. Her expertise spans across energy storage and battery technologies, including manufacturing process–product modelling and optimisation, battery cell and system multi-physics and data-driven modelling, battery management systems and algorithms, and electric vehicle powertrain modelling.

Ann Huang is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London and a holder of an ERC Starting Grant and an EPSRC Innovation Fellowship. She received her BEng in Materials Science from Imperial College London and PhD in manufacturing of solid-state energy storage devices from the University of Oxford. Her research is in the area of new materials, manufacturing technologies and advanced characterisation for energy storage devices including lithium ion batteries, solid-state lithium metal batteries, sodium ion batteries and supercapacitors.

Emma Kendrick is Professor of Energy Materials at the University of Birmingham.  She has worked in industry and academia extensively on energy materials and devices; batteries and fuel cells, and has 70 papers and 21 patent family applications in this field. Her research over the last 20 years has focused on translation of novel functional materials to industry relevant device demonstrators, new battery materials and chemistries to cell demonstrators.  Her enthusiasm for new technology development, mainly batteries, extends to the industrial and academic field.

Paul Shearing is Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Department of Engineering Science and Director of the ZERO Institute at Oxford University. He holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Battery Technologies. As Director of The ZERO Institute, he will help to shape ZERO’s ethos, strategy, networks, research and teaching programmes. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2024.

Mark Simmons is a Chemical Engineer and Professor of Fluid Mechanics at the University of Birmingham. He was Head of School from 2014 to 2021. Mark graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1995 with a Masters in Chemical Engineering and stayed on to undertake PhD study in the area of liquid-liquid flows. Following graduation, he spent a year in the USA as a postdoc at the University of Illinois. Since joining the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in 2000, he has established an internationally recognised research activity in the area of multiphase processing of complex fluids. ​​​​

Peter R. Slater is Professor in Materials Chemistry at the University of Birmingham and Co-Director of the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage. He has more than 25 year’s research experience in the area of solid state/materials chemistry, ranging from battery materials to fuel cells. His present research focuses mainly on the development of novel ionic and mixed conductors for energy storage and conversion applications including the use of novel doping/coating strategies to stabilize new systems/improve materials performance. 

Philip Bellchambers is a Research Fellow at WMG, University of Warwick. His primary focus on the NEXTRODE project is to develop the current understanding of continuous slurry processing and explore its potential benefits to cell design and manufacture. His prior research centered on novel routes to the manufacture of transparent electrodes at scale and targeted for next-generation thin-film photovoltaics. Philip was awarded his Ph.D. in 2021 for his work stabilizing nano-structured ultrathin copper films.

Lin Chen received her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry and Materials from the Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Genova, Italy). She is currently holding a part-time research fellow position in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests cover electrochemistry, energy storage materials, devices development and battery recycling. Before joining the project, she held a research fellow position on an Horizon 2020 project in the Energy Materials Group conducting research on the development of materials and recycling for energy storage devices.

Hamidreza Farhadi Tolie is currently a Research Fellow at the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick. He received his B.Sc. in Information Technology Engineering (2018) and M.Sc. in Computer Science (2021) from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Iran, and obtained his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence in 2025 from the School of Computing, Engineering, and Technology at Robert Gordon University, UK. His research interests include image processing, computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, and data science.

Naresh is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, working on the Nextrode project with a focus on developing dry electrode manufacturing processes. He has a strong background in both industry (Faradion) and academia (University of Sheffield), with expertise in sodium- and lithium-ion battery cathode materials synthesis, characterization, scale-up, electrode fabrication, cell testing, and post-mortem analysis to understand performance and degradation mechanisms.

My research interests include Energy Devices, Instrumentation, and sensory technologies (TCs, thermistors, acoustic sensors). I'm exploring AI and machine learning applications in technology. Key areas: optimising energy device performance, advanced battery diagnostics, Solid State Electrochemistry, Fuel Cell innovations, and thin-film sensor development.

Sam is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and splits his time between the Energy Materials Group and the Mixing and Multiphase Group, as part of the NEXTRODE project. Focusing on the mixing and rheological properties of electrode inks, utilising techniques such as Particle Imaging Velocimetry and Positron Emission Particle Tracking.  Sam received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Bristol, as part of the Soft Matter Group. His work focused on the stability of colloid-polymer gels, used in the formulation of personal care and agrochemical products.

Josin is a research fellow with Prof Emma Kendrick at the University of Birmingham. As part of the NEXTRODE project, his project will focus on developing low solvent and dry processing of blended LMFP/NMC electrodes with favourable electrochemical performance. Prior to his post-doctoral position, Josin undertook a PhD in developing a casting/ coating process for thermal batteries which was mainly done at the University of St. Andrews and partly at Universite Nantes in Nantes, France.

Fiyanshu Kaka is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Battery Modelling at the University of Oxford, working on the Nextrode project. He received his PhD in Materials Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2020. He is a Computational Materials Engineer with expertise in physics-based and data-driven modelling for energy harvesting and storage applications. 

Guanting Li is a Research Associate in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London, where his research focused on advanced electrode manufacturing for lithium-ion batteries. His current research explores thick electrodes with engineered microstructures to improve ion transport and electrochemical performance. As part of NEXTRODE, he works on novel electrode manufacturing and characterisation strategies.

Alex is a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. He obtained his PhD and completed subsequent postdoctoral research in University College Cork, Ireland. His previous work involved developing an operando UV-vis technique for assessing photonic crystal structured electrode films. As part of the NEXTRODE project, his research will focus on searching for PTFE alternatives for use as binders in dry electrode processing and studying the composition of prepared electrodes.

Ben is a Post Doctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. He completed his DPhil in Materials Science in Professor Patrick Grant's group, where his research focused on solvent-free (dry) battery electrodes. His doctoral work investigated their mechanical properties and the relationships between processing, structure, and electrochemical performance. He now works in Professor Paul Shearing’s group, using advanced X-ray tomography to better understand the microstructure of dry electrodes.

Hamza is a Research Associate in the Particle Technology Group at the University of Sheffield. As part of the NEXTRODE project, he uses discrete element method (DEM) modelling to optimise battery-electrode manufacturing, focusing on how calendering affects electrode microstructure and performance. His doctoral research explored dry-electrode manufacturing through powder-spreading additive manufacturing. He also completed a four-month modelling internship at Tesla, gaining experience in PTFE fibrillation. Before his PhD, he worked in industry on process optimisation and scale-up.

Zhonghua Ren obtained his BS degree in Mineral Processing Engineering from Central South University, China in 2010, and completed his MS and PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, China in 2012 and 2018, respectively. His PhD research focused mainly on developing novel micro-/nanoscale and porous materials for energy storage and conversion (batteries, supercapacitors, electrocatalysis). In April 2020, he joined the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral research assistant. He is working on the development of next generation Lithium-ion batteries.

Yige Sun is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, a MPLS division 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 Ph.D. degree from the University of Tsukuba. She was a junior researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan. She is currently working on surface analysis techniques for lithium-ion batteries, and advanced manufacturing for smart electrodes (WP3). 

Simon Tonge completed a PhD in solid mechanics at the University of Bristol in 2023. His work focused on the application of advanced image-based techniques and finite element analysis to fracture mechanics. Having joined the Nextrode collaboration, working under Paul Shearing at the University of Oxford, he uses simulations and X-ray tomography to optimise electrode microstructures. This involves the application of novel algorithms and machine learning to synchrotron X-ray tomography data.

Jiacheng is a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in the Particle Technology Group within the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. As part of the NEXTRODE project, his research focuses on powder mixing and flow in dry electrode processing, and the electrochemical characterisation of dry electrodes. He holds a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London and a PhD in Materials from the University of Manchester. He was a PDRA at University College London, working on battery research projects prior to his current post.

Stan is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He has obtained his PhD degree through a joint industrial-academic project at imec and KU Leuven in Belgium, working on 3D-nanowire electrodes for Li-ion batteries and electrolytic H₂ generation. Prior to that, he completed a MSc in Nanoscience at the University of Barcelona, Spain and a Young Graduate Internship at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands. Besides energy storage, his scientific interests include (nano)porous materials, surface engineering and electro/physical chemistry.

Sarah Bhutta is a PhD student in Battery System at WMG, University of Warwick. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and has experience in electric vehicles and high-voltage systems. Her research focuses on simulating and optimizing battery electrode slurries using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and continuous processing methods. Sarah is particularly interested in lithium-ion battery manufacturing and is keen to contribute to the Nextrode Project to advance next-generation electrode technologies.

H. Yigit Cem is a PhD student in Battery Instrumentation Group at University of Warwick, supervised by Dr. Timothy Vincent, Dr. Erdogan Guk and Prof. James Marco. He had completed his undergraduate degree in Mechatronics Engineering at YTU, Istanbul Turkiye.

His main research focus is developing smart cell components to track temperatures along the battery electrode during cycling. This research may provide better understanding of battery electrode during cycling and prolong lithium ion battery life by providing critical information.

Panch Poologalingam is a PhD student in the Energy Materials Group at the University of Birmingham, working under the supervision of Professor Emma Kendrick since September 2024. His research focuses on the design and optimisation of electrode slurries for lithium-ion battery manufacturing, with particular emphasis on slurry rheology, microstructure, and their impact on electrochemical performance.

His multidisciplinary background bridges industrial formulation science with emerging energy technologies, and he is now applying this expertise to investigate how binders and particles interact.