Job description

Job summary

Applications are invited for a Research Fellow position in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London (White City Campus) to carry out research in the area of battery science in the group of Dr Tapia-Ruiz. The role will give you the opportunity to develop new low-cost and sustainable battery technologies to fight climate change. In particular, the project will focus on the synthesis and characterisation of new high-performance composite anode materials for Na-ion batteries and the optimisation of their respective SEIs using advanced characterisation techniques to understand structure-property-performance in these materials.

The position is funded through the ISCF Faraday Battery Challenge (Faraday Institution Phase-Two projects (www.faraday.ac.uk)) to work on the NEXGENNA project (Next Generation of Sodium-ion batteries (https://www.nexgenna.org/), where you will work in a multidisciplinary research group in close collaboration with academic partners from UK academic institutions (University of Cambridge, University of St Andrews and University of Birmingham), the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Diamond Light Source, and industrial partners (Deregallera, AGM and Faradion). The NEXGENNA project aims at accelerating the development of sodium-ion battery technology by taking a multidisciplinary approach incorporating fundamental chemistry right through to scale-up and cell manufacturing. Its aim is to put on the path to commercialisation a sodium-ion battery with high performance, low cost, and that has a long cycle life and is safe.

Duties and responsibilities

• To work in close collaboration with the principal investigator and collaborators in the project.


• To take initiative in the planning and execution of research.


• To keep up to date with current knowledge and recent advances in the field/discipline.


• To contribute to the acquisition, set up, maintenance and integration of experimental apparatus.


• To contribute to the organisation, supervision, mentoring and training of undergraduate and/or postgraduate students and less experienced members of the project team to ensure their effective development.


• To contribute to the presentation of work at international and national conferences, at internal and external seminars, colloquia and workshops to develop and enhance your research profile.


• To engage in personal, professional and career development activities to enhance both specialist and transferable skills in accordance with a desired career trajectory.


• To collaborate with colleagues and participate in team/group meetings /seminars/ workshops across the research Group/Department/Faculty/University and wider community (e.g. Academic and Industrial Partners).

Essential requirements

• You will have a PhD degree* in Chemistry/Materials Science/Chemical Engineering subjects.


• Experience in the area of battery science.


• Experience in synthesis, electrochemical testing and advanced characterisation (diffraction, spectroscopic or microscopic methods) of battery materials.


• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.


• Demonstrate a proven track record of scientific publishing that reflects on career status.


• Must be able to work well within a multidisciplinary and diverse research team, both as an individual and as a larger team.


• Exceptional experimental skills related to battery science.


• Experience in carrying out original research and to produce published research papers.

*Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194-£41,388 per annum.

Further information

This is a full time, fixed term position until 30 June 2024. You will be based at White City Campus.

Informal enquiries about the post can be made to Dr Nuria Tapia-Ruiz (n.tapia-ruiz@imperial.ac.uk)

Further information about the post is available in the job description.

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/ 

Documents

• Job Description Research Associate.pdf