BCSECM welcomes Dr Phoebe Allan

The Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements (BCSECM) are excited to announce the recruitment of Dr Phoebe Allan.

Dr Allan will be joining the University of Birmingham as part of the sector leading Birmingham Fellowship programme, providing her with dedicated time for high-quality research in the area of materials chemistry for energy storage.   

Her research aims to understand the links between the structure of a material and its electrochemical properties. Her research programme will develop experiments which probe the structure of a material as it changes in real-time and under operational conditions. This approach will provide an insight into which structural features are desirable for good electrochemical performance, and will guide her group’s synthetic approaches to obtain new materials with optimised performance. Other aspects of her research programme will include the characterisation and re-use of recycled materials from lithium-ion batteries.

When speaking of her appointment Dr Allan said:

 “I am extremely excited to be joining the University of Birmingham as a Birmingham Fellow. The Birmingham Fellowship is an unrivalled opportunity to develop and implement my own research programme over the next five years. My research will benefit from the School of Chemistry's excellent characterisation facilities and strongly collaborative environment. I look forward to working closely with the large cohort of energy researchers across the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, the Birmingham Energy Institute, and the wider University.”

Dr Paul Anderson, Co-director of BCSECM added, “Phoebe is one of the UK's foremost young materials chemists, and we are delighted that she will be joining us at the University. We at the BCSECM look forward to collaborating with her on the characterisation and recycling of energy materials such as those in lithium- and sodium-ion batteries.”

Notes:

• Dr Allan studied Physical Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 2004 - 2008. She completed her PhD with Professor Russell Morris FRS at the University of St Andrews in 2012, working on the storage of medical gases using metal-organic frameworks. She worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher with Professor Clare Grey FRS from 2012 – 2013. She was then awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, and an Oppenheimer Fellowship from the School of Physical Sciences, University of Cambridge which she held from 2013 – 2018. Here, her research focused on developing synchrotron-based studies to understand and develop new electrodes for lithium and sodium-ion batteries. From 2015 – 2017, Phoebe also worked as a beamline support scientist at Diamond Light Source.