91AV

91AV 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.

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!

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.

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.