Prof Saiful Islam
University of Oxford
Dept of Materials
University Professor in Materials Science
Personal webpage
@SaifulChemistry
Tell us a little bit about you
I grew up in Crouch End, north London and obtained my Chemistry degree and PhD (1988) from University College London (with Richard Catlow FRS), followed by a Research Fellowship at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, USA.
In 2016, I was delighted and honoured to present the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for BBC TV on the theme of energy - which included a Guinness World Record for the highest voltage lemon battery!
I currently enjoy serving on the RSC Board of Trustees and the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee, as well as being a Patron of Humanists UK.
In 2019, I was very surprised and flattered to be nominated for an OBE - but I turned it down as I've never been comfortable with the words ‘British Empire’ in this award and the links to colonialism and slavery.
What is your area of research and what project(s) are you working on now?
My research group are contributing to the deeper understanding of atomistic processes in energy materials, especially those related to lithium batteries, solid-state batteries and perovskite solar cells.
Recent efforts have focused on:
(a) Lithium-rich cathode materials for Li-ion batteries (as PI of the Faraday Institution CATMAT project on next-generation cathode materials);
(b) new solid electrolyte materials for lithium and sodium solid-state batteries;
(c) Inorganic and hybrid halide perovskite materials for solar cells.
Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2o8NVaAAAAAJ&hl=en
Fun question: If you had a magic wand, what is one thing you would change right now?
The current UK government.
Energy Materials
Solar Energy
Energy Storage