Professor Forsyth and IFM Electromaterials Group News
Welcome back for 2023
Group coffee to celebrate a new year at IFM Electromaterials
Congratulations on the completion of the 2022 storEnergy Symposium!
Congratulations to best poster award winners Anna Warrington and Dale Duncan, and a big thank you to all speakers for an inspiring two day symposium!
Congratulations Cristina!
A big congratulations for Cristina on her promotion to Associate Professor.
Kaye wins VC’s Early Career Researcher Award for Career Excellence
Dr Minkyung (Kaye) Kang has won a $10,000 Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher Award for Career Excellence.
The award recognised Kaye’s excellent contribution to the Introducing a New Nanotechnology for our Sustainable Future and the advancement of the University’s Strategic Plan, Deakin 2030: Ideas to Impact.
Kaye specialises in electrochemistry and imaging technology. Her current research title is “Developing Sustainable and Reliable Anode-free Lithium Metal Batteries”.
Read more here
IFM Training Workshop for ECR and HDR students
The IFM Training Workshop for ECR and HDR students was a great opportunity to network, team build and learn more about developing a career in research with some expert tips.
Experts included David Pile from Nature Journal, Dr Daniela Kaleva – Program Manager, Researcher Development, Deakin Research, Elise Snashall-Woodhams – Deakin Media Unit, Dr Thomas Dorin – IFM.
New discovery shifts sodium batteries from risky liquid to safe solid
Dr Xiaoen Wang and Professor Maria Forsyth from the Institute for Frontier Materials, in collaboration with University of Queensland, have developed a new non-flammable electrolyte material for use in sodium batteries, which provides a safer and cheaper alternative to lithium-ion batteries. This breakthrough was published in Nature Materials, and paves the way for a new critical material for safer batteries.
Solving the problem of battery waste
Read about IFM’s work in the battery recycling space.
Prof Maria speaks about StorEnergy on Sky News Extra
Assistant Minister to the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction, Tim Wilson, speaks about the ARC Training Centre in Future Energy Storage Technologies (StorEnergy) led by Professor Maria Forsyth. Listen to what he had to say.
Congratulations Prof Maria Forsyth for winning the 2021 RH Stokes Medal
The R.H. Stokes Medal is awarded for distinguished research in the field of electrochemistry carried out mainly in Australasia.
2021 Farewell Coffee
A coffee catch up to farewell 2021, and any group members leaving this year.
Outreach with Camberwell High School
Dr. Faezeh Makhlooghiazad and Dr. Timothy Khoo led an interactive, engaging outreach program with Camberwell High School’s Year 9 STEM class and IFM researchers on Nov 30 and Dec 2. Read more here.
PhD Student Theses Accepted
Congratulations to Thushan, Shammi, Kevin, Laura, Urbi and Priya who had their PhD theses accepted.
Meet Xiaoen Wang
Click here to watch an interview with IFM research fellow Dr Xiaoen Wang
SEE Labs make ClimateLaunchpad National finals
Read about SEE Labs, one of two teams from IFM Burwood who have made the national finals of cleantech competition ClimateLaunchpad
BatTri-Hub 2.0 announced
The Victorian State Government has announced a $34.9 million plan which includes funding for the new BatTri-Hub 2.0 at Deakin University’s Burwood Campus. Read further here.
Congratulations to Shammi, Kevin, Thushan, Laura and Khryslyn for submitting their theses
Congratulations to Sobhan Hosseini for the completion of his thesis
Sobhan Hosseini has completed his thesis and has been approved to seek conferral of his degree.
Sobhan’s thesis: Developing a Smart Reinforced Concrete Infrastructure for Monitoring Durability
Dr Wren Greene part of a new agreement with industry partner UBI
Read about Wren’s new multi-million dollar agreement with UBI for the development of biosensors, including tumour antigen biosensor.
Kickstarting next-generation battery production in Australia
Read about how our researchers, in collaboration with technology company Calix, are making swift progress towards producing cheaper, more efficient, environmentally-sound batteries in Australia.
storEnergy Symposium – 22 and 23 November 2022
The ARC Industrial Training Transformation Centre for Future Energy Technologies (storEnergy) annual Symposium will be held on the 22 and 23 November at Deakin University, Burwood Campus in Melbourne.
This symposium will be held in person with guest speakers from different industries involving Fortescue Future Industries, Sicona Battery Technologies, Calix Limited, Zenaji Pty Ltd, Redgrid, Generation Technologies EntX Limited, Relectrify, Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC), REDEI Renewable Energy Solutions.
There will also be various invited talks from national and international academic institutions including Deakin University, Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of South Australia, CIC EnergiGUNE Spain, Polymat Institute Spain and Deakin Energy Networks.
Maria elected ATSE Fellow
Congratulations to Maria on her election as an ATSE Fellow.
Fellows are leaders in their fields spanning structural engineering, research commercialisation, sustainable technology and mining, marine modelling, and cutting-edge health systems.
“Elected by their peers, ATSE Fellows are leaders in applied science, technology and engineering and we celebrate their exceptional professional contributions to Australian STEM innovation,” ATSE President Hugh Bradlow said.
ATSE described Maria as being ‘at the forefront of global research and collaboration in energy storage for decades. Her work on battery technology has consistently achieved breakthrough results.’
Greg wins best poster at ISPE-17
Congratulations to PhD Candidate Greg Rollo-Walker on winning a best poster prize at 17th International Symposium on Polymer Electrolytes (ISPE-17) for his work on the synthesis of quasi-block copolymer battery electrolytes.
IFM paves new path for next-generation polymer-based battery design
The team from Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) used computer modelling and simulations to design a new type of solid-state polymer electrolyte, showing its potential use in various types of polymer-based solid-state batteries, particularly sodium and potassium batteries.
PhD Profiles: Karolina Biernacka
Read more about IFM PhD student Karolina Biernacka and her journey.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Celebrating the rapidly growing number of women researchers joining the BatTRI-Hub research team under the leadership of global expert Prof Maria Forsyth
Dr Faezeh Makhlooghiazad and collegues publish paper in Nature Materials
Read about the paper “Zwitterionic materials with disorder and plasticity and their application as non-volatile solid or liquid electrolytes” here.
Battery Manufacturing Roundtable
On the 25th of November storEnergy and the Victorian Government jointly hosted an industry roundtable to discuss the opportunities and challenges for battery manufacturing in Victoria. More than 100 participants (face-to-face and online) representing industry, government and research, discussed a range of issues including the current state of battery manufacturing, technical capabilities, supply chain competitiveness and battery recycling and reuse.
For further information, contact Dr Tim Khoo at [email protected]
SEE Labs advance to global finals of ClimateLaunchpad
SEE Labs advance to the ClimateLaunchpad Global final after winning first place in the Southeast Aisa Pacific final. The Global final is from 27-29 October. Click here to read more.
IFM Virtual Open Day 2021
Australian Circular make ClimateLaunchpad National finals
Read about Australian Circular, a team mentored by Dr Cristina Pozo-Gonzalo, who have made the national finals of cleantech competition ClimateLaunchpad
Jenny Sun publishes new paper
Read about Jenny Sun’s new paper “Anion-Derived Solid Electrolyte Interphase Enables Long Life Na-Ion Batteries Using Superconcentrated Ionic Liquid Electrolytes”.
Shammi Ferdousi participating in the 2021 Falling Walls Lab Victoria event
Congratulations to Shammi Ferdousi for her participation in the 2021 Falling Walls Lab Victoria on 16 August 2021. She is one of 10 finalists who will present a 3 minute pitch, with her topic “Breaking the wall of costly energy storage” – We will be cheering her on! Click here to register to attend the event.
Work experience at IFM
Two secondary school students had the oppertunity to experience working as research scientists in a week long work experience program run at IFM.
Meet Meisam Hasanpoor
Click here to watch an interview with storEnergy team member Meisam Hasanpoor
Demand for rare-earth metals is skyrocketing, so we’re creating a safer, cleaner way to recover them from old phones and laptops
Read Cristina’s article in the Conversation about developing a way to use environmentally friendly chemicals to recover rare-earth metals.
