2024 Highlights
December 2024
Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan on being selected as one of the 13 members of the Physics Inclusion Award Assessment panel from across the physics community in the UK and Ireland. The Physics Inclusion Award is a portfolio award that will enable university departments to submit annual updates and to show progress in their EDI work over five years.
Dr Balakrishnan visited the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR Singapore. This is the beginning of new collaborations. This International Exchange visit was funded by the Materials for Quantum Network (M4QN).
Dr Balakrishnan pleased to be part of the organizing team to livestream one of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures at Keele University. Dr Chris van Tulleken revealed the "revolutionary science inside our bodies when we eat". Even though the title sounds like a bioscience talk, lots of physics were explained with wonderful demonstrations.
Dr Balakrishnan pleased to organise the annual Diversity Day at our School (Chemical and Physical Sciences) in Keele University. Thank you so much everyone who brought food and drinks to represent their country/culture.
November 2024
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased to welcome Shumaila Parvez (Shemi) to her research group. Shemi is a Commonwealth Split-Site PhD Scholar from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. She will be here at Keele University for the next 12 months to work with Dr Ian Oliver and Dr Balakrishnan on a project "Novel MXenex for water treatment".
Congratulations Dr Lewis Adams on passing his PhD viva today with minor corrections. Thank you so much Monica Craciun (external examiner), Richard Dalton (internal examiner), and Barry Smalley (viva chair) for conducting the examination. Many thanks to all our collaborators who helped us deliver this PhD project successfully
Dr Balakrishnan joined the American Journal of Physical Chemistry as a special issue editor. The special issue "Advances in Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Energy Storage Applications" aims to showcase recent breakthroughs and insights in electrocatalyst development for energy storage applications, emphasizing advancements that enhance efficiency, stability, and cost-effectiveness. It invites research on novel materials, innovative synthesis methods, and cutting-edge characterization techniques that push the boundaries of current energy storage systems, including fuel cells, batteries, and electrochemical cells. The issue also seeks to identify emerging trends, challenges, and future directions, ultimately contributing to the development of sustainable, high-performance energy storage solutions necessary for a low-carbon energy future.
Dr Nilanthy Balakrishnan gave a Keynote talk entitled “2D Materials-based electrodes for sustainable supercapacitors” at the International Conference on Graphene and 2D Materials on November 4th in Vancouver, Canada. She disseminated her group’s work on the “Smart electrodes for energy storage devices”, an EPSRC-funded project.
October 2024
Dr Balakrishnan performed magneto-transport measurements using Dr Oleg Makarovskiy's 16 T cryo-free magnet at the University of Nottingham. Some interesting preliminary data was obtained.
September 2024
Congratulations Dan Mitchell for starting an MRes at the University of York. Dan was a 3rd year undergraduate project student in 2023/24, worked with Dr Balakrishnan on a project entitled " van der Waals heterostructures".
Dr Balakrishnan was short listed to participate to the EPSRC Advanced Materials workshop at Solihull on the 3rd of September. She shared her views to the discussion focused on the "Priority Areas" for the next 4 years.
August 2024
Dr Balakrishnan visited to Sri Lanka. She visited the University of Jaffna for several collaboration meetings as part of the Aytron project proposal. She also visited the Faculty of Applied Science, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka as part of her EPSRC ECR International Collaboration grant. She had a great time with Prof. Kumudu Perera and Prof. Kamal Vidanapathirana at their polymer research lab.
July 2024
Congratulations Dr Balakrishnan and Dr Morbec for the success of the 1-day Workshop on Materials for Sustainability and Digital Technologies at Keele. Thanks to the sponsors IOP Semiconductor Physics Group, IOP Structural Condensed Matter Group, and IOP Quantum Electronics and Photonics Group, all the speakers and attendees.
Congratulations to Lewis Adams on his first-authored paper "Substrate-induced strain in molybdenum disulfide grown by aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition".
Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan, Lewis Adams and their collaborators Prof. Kumudu Perara and Prof. Kamal Vidanapathirana from Wayamba University of Sri Lanka for the publication of their recent work on "Sustainable supercapacitors with a natural rubber-based electrolyte and natural graphite-based electrodes".
Dr Balakrishnan was pleased to be part of the programme committee of UK Semiconductors 2024. She has chaired a TMD: 2D Materials session and give a contributed talk on the growth of FeSe layers.
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on the growth of FeSe layers at the CMQM conference in St Andrews, Scotland.
June 2024
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on the growth of MoS2 on different substrates at the ECOSS conference.
Congratulations Dr Balakrishnan for the completion of Developing Confidence as a Leader - CMI Level 5 course In Professional Development
Congratulations Dr Balakrishnan, Dr Wright, and Dr Phillips for their successful application to the Athena SWAN silver application on behalf of the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences.
May 2024
Congratulations Dr. Balakrishnan for receiving the Henry Royce's Researchers Equipment Access Scheme to access the National Graphene Institute's devices fabrication facilities for a period of 4 weeks.
Congratulations to Dr Nilanthy Balakrishnan and her collaborators Dr Suneev Anil Bansal, Dr Virat Khanna, and Dr Pallav Gupta for their edited book "Emerging Applications of Novel Nanoparticles" to be published by Springer.
Dr Nilanthy Balakrishnan pleased to given an invited talk at the Royal Society Industry College networking event at Manchester Metropolitan on 21st May 2024. She shared her experience of working with the Park System UK Ltd during her short industry fellowship in 2022.
Dr Balakrishnan joined the Pint-of-Science 2024 Stoke-on-Trent & Crew team and delivered a public talk at Mellards bar, Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on the growth of Iron Selenide layers at Quantum 2024 conference
https://www.quantumconf.eu/2024/about.php#about
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Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan for being promoted as a Senior Lecturer in Physics.
April 2024
Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan for receiving the IOP Trusted Reviewer status.
Dr. Nilanthy Balakrishnan is pleased to be part of the programme committee of UK Semiconductors 2024 conference (https://https://uksemiconductors.com/?page_id=20).
Congratulations Lewis Adams for winning the Midlands Innovation's Technician-Led Equipment Sharing fund to access the Raman spectroscopy at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC), University of Nottingham.
March 2024
Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan for being invited to the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (Round 8) interview stage. The interview will be held in April 2024.
Dr Balakrishnan was honoured to chair the "Phase Transition" session at the BCA Spring Meeting 2024 at Leeds University on 26th of March 2024.
February 2024
Congratulations Dr Balakrishnan for successfully started to deliver the EPSRC ECR International Collaboration grant (£200k) project of "Smart Electrodes for Energy Storage Devices".
Dr Balakrishnan and Dr Morbec had a wonderful time on the 11th of February at the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in Newcastle-under-Lyme. They demonstrated renewable energy sources to young girls and boys.
