People
Professor Matt Davidson
Matt was born in Bridgend, South Wales, in 1967 and educated at schools in Worksop and Sheffield before completing a first degree in Chemistry at the University of Wales, Swansea. In 1990 he moved to Cambridge to undertake a PhD in the research group of Ron Snaith. He was awarded a Research Fellowship at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1992 and was subsequently appointed to a fixed-term lectureship at Cambridge in 1994. In 1995 he accepted a lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Durham, where he remained for four years until moving in 1999 to his current position, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, at the University of Bath. Matt was awarded the 1995 Harrison Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for "original studies in the organometallic and coordination chemistry of main group metals and metalloids" and current research interests focus on the design, synthesis and structure of functional molecules, with an increasing emphasis on sustainability.
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Professor Saiful Islam
Saiful grew up in Crouch End, North London, and studied for both BSc and PhD degrees at University College London, completing his PhD in 1987 with Professor Richard Catlow FRS. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Eastman Kodak Labs in Rochester, New York, USA, working on high Tc superconductors. Saiful returned to the UK to become Lecturer, then Reader, at the University of Surrey before joining the University of Bath in January 2006 as Professor of Computational Materials Chemistry. Saiful's interests lie in the field of inorganic materials chemistry and the computer modelling of clean energy materials, particularly for solid oxide fuel cells and lithium ion batteries. Saiful is married (to Gita) with two young children (Yasmin and Zak), and enjoys football, art exhibitions, The Guardian (over a coffee) and jogging (including the Windsor half-marathon).
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Professor Laurie Peter
Laurie studied in Southampton for his PhD before moving to Germany as a CIBA Research Fellow to work with Professor Heinz Gerischer in 1969. He stayed in Germany to become a researcher at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, returning to the UK in 1975 to take up a lectureship in Southampton. He has been Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Bath since 1991. He has held positions as Chairman of the Electrochemistry Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and President of the International Society of Electrochemistry. He is currently an Editor of the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry.
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The Team
Biodiesel: Prof. Matt Davidson, Amanda Chmura, Chris Chuck and Dr Matthew Jones
Fuel Cells: Prof. Saiful Islam, Dr Craig Fisher, Dr Alison Jones and Julia Percival
Solar Cells: Prof. Laurie Peter, Halina Dunn, Alberto Fattori, Dr Wendy Howie, James Jennings and Dr Steve Roser
- Check out the team in action at the Photo Gallery!