Prof John Irvine (CBE, FRSE, FRSC), will lead WP 4. He has made a unique and world-leading contribution to the science of energy materials, especially fuel cell and energy conversion technologies. This research has ranged from detailed fundamental to strategic and applied science and has had major impact across academia, industry and government. Prof Irvine’s science is highly interdisciplinary extending from Chemistry and Materials through physics, bioenergy, geoscience, engineering, economics and policy.
His research interests are in the study of inorganic materials, at the interface between solid state chemistry, condensed matter physics and ceramics. Prof Irvine has a strong background in the interdisciplinary subject of solid-state electrochemistry. He obtained his BSc in Chemical Physics, his D.Phil in photoelectrochemistry and performed his post-doctoral studies investigating alkali-conducting oxides.
Dr Paul Connor, will undertake the research on WP4, a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in the School of Chemistry at St Andrews. He is also a co-investigator on LIBerate (A novel method for black mass extraction from used Lithium-ion cells and refining the materials to go back into new cells) project and the Demonstration of Direct Ammonia Fuel: Demonstration of Direct Ammonia Fuel Cells for Maritime Propulsion project, both of which are funded by Innovate UK. His work focuses on the physical aspects and bridging engineering of SOFC, reversible fuel cell and electrolyser technology.
Dr Gavin Irvine received his PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2021 with a thesis entitled ‘Studies of Hydride Ion Conductors…’ Since then he has worked on several projects with Prof John TS Irvine focusing primarily on hydrogen production and storage. Currently, he is tasked with overseeing the operation of the St Andrews electrolyser (85 kW) at the University’s Eden Campus. His responsibilities include designing, conducting, and analysing data from experiments on the electrolyser. Specifically, he looks to design experiments that answer the question: what is hydrogen’s role in future electrical grids? Additionally, he works to develop collaborations between the JTSI group, other parties in the university, and interested business and academic partners. As part of those efforts, he has cemented an agreement with a Taiwanese electrolysis company to provide an additional 80 kW PEM electrolyser for the Eden campus. Finally, he continues his work with hydride conductors by overseeing Master students’ work in the lab.
Xu Ping obtained his PhD and MSc degrees from Beijing University of Technology. He conducts interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy and artificial intelligence. During his PhD, he published 21 SCI papers as first author (Q1:19; ESI:4; IF: 132.102); H-index 12; Cited: 436 (2024); 8 SCI papers as corresponding author/co-author. He was granted 24 patents. He has received more than fifty awards and scholarships. He is a reviewer for many journals in the field of energy and artificial intelligence, such as Applied Energy, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, International Journal of Intelligent Systems, etc. He is also a guest editor at MDPI.
Dr Robert Price graduated with a first-class B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry with Geology from Keele University in 2014, followed by a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of St Andrews in 2018, supervised by Prof. John T. S. Irvine. His Ph.D. research focused on the development of novel anode materials for solid oxide fuel cells, including the ceramic processing, electrochemical analysis, and upscaling of materials for implementation in industrial environments with micro-combined heat and power unit manufacturer: HEXIS AG. Between 2018 and 2022, he held a position of Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews where he continued to explore this research theme in order to facilitate the successful migration of novel materials from laboratories to industrial applications.
In mid-2022, Robert joined the University of Strathclyde and R&B Distillers Ltd.’s Isle of Raasay Distillery to become a Decarbonisation Distillery Engineer on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project. Following this he moved back to the University of St Andrews in 2024 to take up the position of Research Fellow and work on the development of ceramic solid oxide fuel and electrolysis cells using a production facility on Eden Campus, as well as characterising fuel cells and electrolysers (at multi-kW scales) to support generation of Digital Twin models of grid-scale energy systems, as part of the ENSIGN project.
