Roberta Verrelli, postdoc at the Solid State Chemistry group working on magnesium- and calcium-based batteries was awarded with a 2-week visit to one of the WMRIF institutes for her oral presentation of her research. Congratulations!

"I still don't know where to go for the 2-week measurements visit at one of the WMRIF institutes, but I'm very happy for this prize, which I think will be very useful for us. Moreover, the installations at NPL are great, and the workshop favored a lot the interaction and networking between the participants, to promote collaborations and the use of the equipment of other institutes. I'm glad I was there" says Roberta. 

Figure 1: The winners of the Early Stage Scientists Presentation Contest at WMRIF

The 6th WMRIF Workshop for Early Career Scientists's topic was on "Emerging materials and new processes serving society", including: 

• identifying micro-structure / property / performance relationships for emerging materials,
• ensuring processing quality in new processes such as additive and out-of-autoclave
• manufacture,
• developing characterisation, monitoring and testing methods for new materials and
• processes,
• robotics, Industry 4.0 (or Internet of Things) and the use of “Big Data” to advance productivity,
• advancing new materials and processes to higher TRLs and product applications.

The event encouraged the networking between the participants, to build up good connections and maybe future collaborations among the participants. One of the objectives of this meeting was to let the others know the facilities and equipment of the WMRIF institutes in order to promote the mobility of the researchers and the exchange of ideas. 

Figure 2: Calcium.

Roberta's research focus on the design and synthesis of magnesium and calcium-based batteries. She participates in the ICMAB-coordinated CARBAT project, lead by M. Rosa Palacín, in which they propose calcium-based rechargeable batteries to be a Future and Emerging Technology helping to solve some of the Grand Challenges our modern society is facing: pollution, oil-dependency, and climate change. Some of her recent publications include:

• Electrochemical Intercalation of Calcium and Magnesium in TiS₂: Fundamental Studies Related to Multivalent Battery Applications. Chem. Mater., 2018, 30 (3), pp 847–856
• On the viability of Mg extraction in MgMoN₂: a combined experimental and theoretical approach. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017,19, 26435-26441 

More information: https://www.wmrif.org/wmrif-home/2018-early-career-scientist-summit/