Dr Alice Merryweather

MSci (Durham), MRes (Cantab), PhD (Cantab)

Fellow (B)

College Roles

Henry Sidgwick Research Fellow (B)

Contact

Biography

Dr Alice Merryweather is currently the Henry Sidgwick Research Fellow at Newnham college, working at the Cavendish Laboratory and the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.

As an undergraduate, Alice studied chemistry and physics at the University of Durham, graduating in 2018. She then moved to the University of Cambridge for her graduate studies, completing her MRes in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in 2019. During her PhD, Alice developed an optical microscopy methodology to study ion-transport in battery electrodes, supervised by Prof Akshay Rao and Prof Dame Clare Grey. Alice was awarded the Cavendish Prize in Experimental Physics for her PhD research.

Research Interests

Dr Alice Merryweather’s current research continues to examine dynamic processes occurring in electrochemical systems. In particular, she focusses on understanding kinetic limitations and degradation mechanisms in operating battery electrode materials. These processes are often poorly understood in fast-charging regimes due to a lack of characterisation techniques capable of monitoring them in real time. In response, Alice develops and uses optics-based characterisation tools to directly map the changing local state-of-charge in the active materials. By understanding the origins of reaction heterogeneity and the causes of degradation in these materials, this research aims to inform the development of faster charging batteries with longer usable lifetimes.