Henry Royce Building Aerial-54

Royce Celebrates Awards for Materials Science Community

Royce celebrates as academics selected for awards and fellowships

Manish Chhowalla

Professor Manish Chhowalla

Prof Manish Chhowalla, Royce Core Area Champion for Energy Efficient ICT, has been awarded one of IOM3’s Premier Awards, the Griffith Medal & Prize, for his major contribution to our understanding of 2D materials and devices.

Acknowledged as a world leader in the fields of diamond-like carbons, chemically-exfoliated graphene oxide and mono-layered transition metal dichalcogenides, Prof Chhowalla has, in particular, advanced our understanding of the electronic and electrochemical properties of atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and our utilization of phases with disparate properties for catalysis and energy storage.

In addition to this, Prof Chhowalla and his colleagues have also received the 2020 Charles Hatchett Award for published research on new niobium-based catalysts for hydrogen generation, for their recent Nature paper which highlights the opportunity to develop new 2D metallic materials for catalysts in industrial water electrolysers, which are important sources of hydrogen for use in zero-carbon energy applications.

Professor Ping Xiao

Professor Ping Xiao has been appointed Chair of the Surface Engineering Division at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). Prof Xiao is the Rolls-Royce/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Advanced Coating Technology based at The University of Manchester. His research examines the degradation of ceramic coatings/layers in demanding environments, which involves characterisation of microstructure, mechanical property, and residual stresses in ceramic coatings. As Chair of Surface Engineering at IOM3, Prof Xiao hopes to develop strong links between the Henry Royce Institute and IOM3 members to hep they benefit from the Institute’s equipment and expertise.

Dr Dan Cogswell

Dr Dan Cogswell has been awarded £2.5mil by UKRI as part of the Future Leaders Fellowship programme. Future Leaders Fellowships are prestigious funding schemes that aim to develop a strong supply of talented individuals that are needed to boost research and innovation across the UK

Dr Cogswell’s research is using cutting-edge materials science, mechanical engineering and data analytics to develop a revolutionary manufacturing and property assessment tool to guide engineers on just how much and what type of effort needs to be placed in risk assuring the performance of a component.

Based at the University of Sheffield, his fellowship will involve The University of Manchester, Imperial College London and the Advanced Forming Research Centre as academic partners, and Rolls-Royce and Sheffield Forgemasters as industrial partners.

Dr Cogswell said: “The Future Leaders Fellowship award is an incredible opportunity to make a lasting and transformative contribution to the development of engineering capability for the UK. A real key to this will be developing people, not just technology, to make a lasting impact and take advantage of the materials science ability of the UK in safely solving the engineering challenges of the future.”

Professor Peter Nellist FRS

Professor Nellist, University of Oxford, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Peter is a materials scientist who has pioneered new techniques for atomic-resolution microscopy, his work has focused on scanning transmission electron microscopy and its application across a range of functional and structural materials. He is known for the practical implementation of electron ptychography which allows light elements to be detected while reducing beam-induced damage, and to the theory underlying quantitative image interpretation. He has made fundamental contributions to the development of for the inherent aberrations of electron lenses and their use for the three-dimensional imaging of materials.