Research Fellow (Accelerate)

*Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322 with potential progression once in post to £42,792. PLEASE NOTE - As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is £30,942

Grade 7

Full time, Fixed-term until 31 August 2022

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK

Closing Date:     8 August 2021

The School of Metallurgy and Materials and the University of Birmingham have a Research Fellow position vacancy in the Energy Materials Group to support a 1 year Innovate UK Faraday Challenge project in the testing and characterisation of new battery chemistries. The position will be to provide electrochemical testing and analysis in a multiple of test cell designs and formats.  The aim of the project is to advance current electrochemical testing protocols and provide data to partners in order to accurately predict the performance and lifetime of future battery technologies. This draws together aspects of electrochemical testing, experimental parameterisation and experimental design protocols, to support the creation of multi-scale models.

Information about the Energy Materials Group can be found here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/energy/research/centre-energy-storage/energy-materials-group/index.aspx

As part of this role the postholder will work within the Energy Materials Group and contribute to writing future bids; operating within area of specialism. They will analyse and interpret research findings and results; contribute to generating funding; and contribute to licensing or spin out deals with demonstrated commercial success (such as revenues, asset or company sales, IP generated) and public understanding of the discipline.

The postholder will pursue laboratory experiments using the battery and electrochemistry testing equipment using techniques such as; Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and Galvanostatic Intermittent Titration Technique, HPPC, EVS. They will analyse data to obtain parameters from electrodes and cells, populating models to better predict performance and properties and accelerate cell development with the industrial partners. They will also provide information about the manufacturing (electrode coating, drying, calendering) and cell making (assembly, electrolyte, separator) processes. The post will expand the materials design towards the optimization of stack cell design, and obtain the equivalent circuit (EC) data set to integrate into the EC model data provided from industrial partners. The role will include populating a database with cell testing results -this data are later going to be employed for the training of the data driven models for predictions and optimization. The postholder will also provide validation data from large format cells to validate the multi-scale models.

Person Specification

• First degree in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science or a related area.
• Hold, or be close to completion of, a PhD or equivalent qualifications in Electrochemistry (battery related research degree is highly preferable).
• Desirable is a prior knowledge, experience and achievements in the electrochemical and physical analysis of battery materials or batteries in full cell configurations. However training will be given to the right candidate in these areas.

Informal enquiries to Professor Emma Kendrick, [email protected]

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the Apply Online button below or visit our careers website; https://bham.taleo.net/careersection/external/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en&portal=101430233 , please quote Job Ref 97757 in all enquiries.

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