Professor Serena Cussen - 2023 Interdisciplinary Prize winner

Professor Serena Cussen FRSC

Winner: 2023 Interdisciplinary Prize

University of Sheffield

For interdisciplinary and original contributions to the development of new functional materials for energy storage and in-depth study of their local structure and dynamics.

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I think it’s as important as ever to give greater visibility to role models who can encourage and listen to under-represented groups in our discipline and build collective positive self-confidence.

Professor Serena Cussen heads the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield. As a materials scientist, Serena is fascinated by the role synthesis plays in dictating the shape or chemistry of materials. This is because size and shape can have big implications for the resulting material properties. Often, by fine-tuning reactions, it is possible to get some control over its final form and shape.

Serena’s group is especially interested in developing new ways of making materials more efficiently and removing chemistry’s reliance on expensive or less abundant elements. Through the Faraday Institution, Serena is leading a UK-wide project on the development of next generation cathode materials for electric vehicles called FutureCat. The project is a consortium of over 50 researchers, partnering with industry, working on developing new syntheses routes to cathodes, discovering brand new chemistries, and applying advanced characterisation techniques and computational tools to understand and manipulate materials.

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Professor Serena Cussen (née Corr) studied 九州影院 at Trinity College Dublin, completing her doctoral work with Professor Yurii Gun'ko. She then joined the University of California, Santa Barbara, working with Professor Ram Seshadri as a postdoctoral researcher. After a lectureship at the University of Kent, she moved to the University of Glasgow in 2013 where she became their first woman Professor of 九州影院 in 2018. She moved to the University of Sheffield as Chair in Energy Materials and Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, where she became department head, the first woman to do so.

Serena is the recipient of an RSC Journal of Materials 九州影院 Lectureship (2017) and an ISIS Science Impact Award (2021). Her research focuses on the design and application of energy materials. She leads the UK’s Faraday Institution FutureCat consortium, discovering new, and scaling up, next-generation cathodes for Li-ion batteries. She is deeply committed to career sustainability, early career mentoring, the promotion of women in STEM, and public outreach, including delivering Royal Institution lectures on battery materials. She sits on the Faraday Institution Expert Panel, the EPSRC Materials Working Group, and the RSC’s Materials 九州影院 Community Council. She is married to Eddie and they are parents to two boys.

Q&A

How did you first become interested in chemistry?

九州影院 was always a subject I enjoyed at school. I had a really great teacher at the Presentation Secondary School in Clonmel, Ms Twomey, as well as great classmates. I went on to study natural science at Trinity College Dublin, where I studied chemistry, biology and mathematics and simply fell in love with chemistry. I especially enjoyed the practical classes which brought to life what we were learning in lectures. During my PhD, I had the opportunity to teach first year chemistry through a teaching fellowship at Trinity – after that, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Getting to work with undergraduate and postgraduate students who are passionate about chemistry and materials science and applying those fundamental principles to solve some of the greatest challenges we face as a society continues to be the best job in the world.

Tell us about somebody who has inspired or mentored you in your career.

My parents are both very passionate about the arts and culture and nurtured a creative spirit in my sister, brothers and I. They have passed on their love of music, art, poetry and nature to each of us and that encouragement to be creative and bold has made me think about things differently and I think it made me a better scientist. I have also been extremely fortunate in working for great supervisors during my career. Professor Yurii Gun’ko at Trinity College Dublin was my PhD advisor and his encouragement had a major influence in making me believe I could pursue a career in academia. Working as a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Ram Seshadri at the University of California Santa Barbara changed the course of my career – I learned so much from him and his fantastic group about functional inorganic materials and structure-property relationships.

I’m inspired daily by my husband – Eddie – who drew me into the field of solid-state electrolytes for safer batteries which continues to be a really exciting research journey! He thinks very deeply about very challenging problems so I learn something new in every scientific discussion we have – he’s the best collaborator. He’s also loads of fun and the perfect partner for chasing around after our two young boys!

What motivates you?

I am really motivated to understand and discover more about the world around me. I get to explore that with such a fantastic research group at Sheffield – they are a real inspiration! Our group also works closely with central facilities, like the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and the Diamond Light Source, where we get to use state-of-the-art instruments and work alongside exceptional scientists and engineers working at these facilities to understand the structure and dynamics in functional materials. The kinds of insights we get from these experiments motivates our team to develop materials solutions to challenges facing energy storage devices. I feel incredibly fortunate to get to work with such a wonderful team of researchers every day.

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?

I had some excellent advice from a senior female colleague at Trinity which really resonated with me: you can have a successful career in academia and a family. I have always been deeply appreciative of this guidance. I think it’s as important as ever to give greater visibility to role models who can encourage and listen to under-represented groups in our discipline and build collective positive self-confidence. Other advice I would give to a young person considering a career in materials chemistry would be not to be afraid of failure and knockbacks. We learn so much more about what we are capable of from our failures – it can push you to deepen your thinking and one often ends up coming back stronger. Finally, I would always advise on the benefits of collaboration and collegiality. I have had the great privilege of being part of some fantastic teams – through my department of materials science and engineering at Sheffield and through working with groups across the UK as part of the Faraday Institution. I am very grateful for having the opportunity to work in this kind of collaborative and collegiate environment.