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2025 Highlights
September 2025
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased to be a panel member for the IOP Physics Inclusion Award on 15th September 2025.
Dr Balakrishnan visited the Ragedara Mines (PVT) LTD, one of her industry collaborators, located in Sri Lanka. Ragedara Mines is renowned for producing some of the world’s purest vein graphite. Laboratory testing confirmed that their graphite is ultra-pure and highly crystalline, with a carbon content ranging from 97% to 99%—among the highest globally. Dr Balakrishnan's group evaluated their reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for application in supercapacitors, and the results were promising. This collaborative research was published in the Journal of Energy Storage (Journal of Energy Storage 97 (2024) 112683).
August 2025
Dr Nilanthy Balakrishnan, along with her team—Dr Juliana Morbec, Dr Becky Walton, and Dr Daniela Plana—has been awarded the Royal Society Partnership Seed Grant (£15,000) to implement investigation-based STEM learning in local primary schools.
Dr Balakrishnan joined the Polymer Electronics Research Group at the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka for a 2 weeks secondment.
July 2025
Congratulations to Dr Lewis Adams for officially reserved his PhD on 17th July 2025.
Dr Balakrishnan and her Summer Intern, Sandra Prieto Lopez, hosted a session on the theme of “Renewable Energy” at the Work Placement Week (14th–18th July) at the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences. The work placement students (aged 16+) played one of the games designed by Sandra under her summer internship project.
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on sustainable sustainable growth of ZnS thin films at the UK Semiconductors 2025 conference on 2nd July 2025.
Sandra Prieto Lopez joined Dr Balakrishnan's group as a summer internship student. This 8 weeks project focussed on designing games on materials for renewable energy technologies. This project is supported by Henry Royce Institute.
Dr Balakrishnan pleased to welcome Dr Zeeshan Ali from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan to her lab to work together on the EPSRC ECR International Collaboration grant project.
Dr Balakrishnan welcomed 56 enthusiastic Year 5 and 6 students (ages 9–11) from Friarswood Primary School! She delivered a demonstration focused on the fascinating topic of "states of matter" and what happens when we expose both biological and non-biological materials to extremely cold temperatures.
The highlight is a series of fun-filled experiments using liquid nitrogen! to froze flowers, bananas, rubber bands, and even inflated balloons, as well as quantum levitation.
Congratulations to Shumaila Parvez, for winning the first runner-up poster prize at the UK Symposium on Materials for Sustainability.
Dr Balakrishnan and Dr Morbec successfully hosted the UK Symposium on Materials for sustainability at Keele University on 1st July 2025. The day was filled with insightful talks on a wide range of materials for sustainability technologies. Topics included: 2D materials for low-power electronics and sensors, Perovskites for photovoltaics, Calcium oxide for carbon capture, Materials for thermoelectrics, Materials for random lasers, Battery materials, and Polymers for supercapacitors.
June 2025
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on sustainable sustainable growth of ZnS thin films at the CMQM 2025 conference on 25th June 2025.
Dr Balakrishnan and Dr Morbec are guest-editing a Focus Issue on Materials for Sustainable Technologies for the JPhys Materials and Sustainability Science and Technology journals.
Dr Balakrishnan welcomed 30 Year 12 students to the Natural Sciences Taster Day at Keele University. The session began with her talk on key milestones in quantum discovery, followed by a captivating demonstration of quantum levitation. Students then engaged in hands-on experiments, including electron diffraction to determine Planck’s constant, exploring the photovoltaic effect, and investigating water splitting using small solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells.
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on sustainable supercapacitors at the International Conference on Chemistry for Net Zero, held at the University of St. Andrews on June 10 - 13th, 2025.
Dr Balakrishnan presented her group's work on supercapacitors at the Binks Symposium on Renewable Energy Storage & Generation on 4th June 2025 at the University of Oxford.
May 2025
Shumaila Parvez presented her PhD work at the PhD Commonwealth Conference 2025 held at the former Royal residence Cumberland lodge (Windsor Great Park) from 30th May to 1st June 2025.
Dr Balakrishnan presented two posters on her group's research at the E-MRS Spring Meeting 2025 held from 26th to 30th May in Strasbourg, France.
Dr Balakrishnan is delighted to be part of the Pint of Science 2025 Festival. She raised her Glass to Quantum by giving a talk entitled "Exploring the Quantum Technology Revolution" at The Quarter pub in Stoke-on-Trent on 21st May 2025.
She took the audience to an exciting journey into the world of quantum mechanics! by exploring the revolutionary advancements in quantum technology and to discover how quantum science is pushing the boundaries of both science and industry, transforming fields such as healthcare and communication.
Dr Balakrishnan given an invited talk at the Experimental and Theoritical Condensed Matter and Nanoscience Seminar at the University on 13th of May 2025.
Congratulations to Hilary Philipson on passing her MPhil viva. Many thanks to our external examiner, Professor Ann Chippindale, internal examiner, Dr Annette Shrive, and viva chair, Dr Nick Wright.
April 2025
Dr Balakrishnan presented a poster on her group's research on supercapacitors at Energy 2025 conference held on 29th April at the Institute of Physics, London.
Dr Balakrishnan chaired the PCG Open session and given a talk at the BCA Spring Meeting 2025 held at the University of Leeds on 14th - 17th April 2025.
Dr Balakrishnan given an invited talk at the 6th International Conference on Nanomaterials, Nanofabrication, and Nanocharacterization (NANOMACH) held in Mugla, Türkiye on 8th-14th April 2025.
Shumaila Parvez presented her PhD work entitled "Growth response of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to two-dimensional MXenes (Ti3C2Tx) Nanoparticles applied through seed-priming" at the early career spring symposium organised by the RSC Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Group, which held at the Department of Chemistry, UCL, London, United Kingdom (9-10 April 2025).
Dr Balakrishnan is proud to be part of the Academic Group Panel for the Stakeholder meeting with the candidates for the Keele University Vice-Chancellor interview.
March 2025
The first-panel meeting of IOP's Physics Inclusion Award was held on 24th March 2025. Dr Balakrishnan served as the panel member for this award. The Physics Inclusion Award is a portfolio award that enables departments to submit annual updates and evidence the progress in their equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work over a five-year time period.
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased to be part of the Royal Society of Chemistry's ChemCareers webinar entitled "Practicalities of an Academic Career in the UK".
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased to be an expert panel member for the 3D Nanoscale Metamaterials Hub for Sustainable Future. This funding opportunity aims to enable the metamaterials community in delivering impact through the design and development of 3D metamaterials at the nanoscale.
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased to be part of the UK Semiconductors 2025 programme committee.
February 2025
Dr Balakrishnan and Dr Morbec are jointly organizing the UK Symposium on Materials for sustainability. This symposium aims to bring experts to share recent advances and discuss new opportunities and challenges on the development of materials for a more sustainable future. This event also provides opportunities for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to present their work, discuss new methods and cutting-edge ideas, and build new collaborations.
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased to be part of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science Celebration at Keele in Town, Newcastle-under-Lyme. She demonstrated the importance of renewable energy and green hydrogen production to the public.
Dr Balakrishnan is pleased receive £3,500 funding from the Henry Royce Institute for an undergraduate student internship in Materials Science at Keele University.
January 2025
Dr Balakrishnan pleased to welcome back Prof. Kumudu Perera and Prof. Kamal Vidanapathirana to her lab to work together on the EPSRC ECR International Collaboration grant project.
Dr Balakrishnan was the external examiner for a PhD oral viva examination conducted at the University of Manchester.
Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan for giving a plenary talk at the 3rd International Conference on Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (https://lnkd.in/e9zrFZBv). She also acted as a panel member for judging the young scientist award presentations. New collaborations were also initiated as a result of this conference.
Congratulations to Dr Balakrishnan on being selected as one of the LivWiSE Thank You Awards 2024 winners.
Dr Balakrishnan visited to IIT Madras, Dr Abhishek Misra's lab and his group members. They had discussions for a collaborative project.
Dr Balakrishnan pleased to join the CMQM 2025 conference as a programme committee member.
