Profile

As my mum is British and my dad is Nigerian, I’m proud to be mixed-race as I have been able to experience both cultures! 🇳🇬🇬🇧 I’ve been to Nigeria a few times as a child but not as an adult, so I would love to visit again soon.

Before starting my current studies, I spent 6 months travelling in Asia! 🇹🇭🇻🇳🇱🇦🇰🇭🇵🇭🇮🇩🇮🇳🇲🇾🇸🇬 It was amazing to experience all of the different cultures there and try new, delicious dishes every day! I love travelling and hope to explore more of Africa and South America in the future, as well as live in another country for a while. As a member of the Scouts whilst I was growing up, I also travelled to many countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Romania and Austria. 🇸🇪🇩🇰🇷🇴🇦🇹🇵🇱 When I was 19 I also hitchhiked from Calais (France) to Croatia which took 2 weeks!

I’m able to speak French reasonably well as I maintained a friendship with my french exchange partner from school. 🇫🇷 We would spend 2 weeks at each other’s house every summer which allowed us to learn each other’s language very well! I would recommend anyone to participate in an exchange if your school has one! I then studied French at A-Level and completed an 8-month research internship in Grenoble for my Masters year.

In my research, I am making and testing new materials to be used as electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries (the types used in phones and cars!). Electrolytes are the part of a battery that separate the positive and negative ends. They are really crucial for the performance of the battery, however current batteries use toxic and highly flammable liquids which can be dangerous. If you’ve heard about exploding batteries in phones or cars, it’s because the battery has overheated and the electrolyte caught fire!

I’m replacing these liquid electrolytes with a solid material known as a polymer. You may have heard of polymers before – plastics are a type of polymer! They are wonderful materials that can have many different properties depending on their chemical structure. Another great thing about polymers is that they can be made from sustainable resources. The polymers that I make are made from sugars and castor oil, both naturally occurring and renewable resources! By replacing liquid electrolytes with polymer electrolytes, batteries of the future will be safer and stronger!

I do experiments in the lab most days but they don’t always take up all of my time. I might start one in the morning and then it can be left for several hours, or overnight. If I don’t have other experiments to do then I spend the rest of the time in the office reading research publications related to my field, organising and analysing data or writing reports. Sometimes I will work from home if I need to focus on these things.

In the evenings I spend a lot of time cooking as I love making meals from recipe books. Sometimes I’ll meet up with friends or do some other exercise (e.g. swimming or badminton), but a lot of the time I’ll watch something on Youtube or Netflix to relax!