WMG Battery Seminar Day
Battery Coatings, Electrode Architecture and Cell Characterisation
Educational Seminar
Tuesday 13 October 2026
Connecting Battery Research, Industry and Instrumentation
Join SciMed at WMG for a one-day seminar bringing together leading academic researchers, battery-industry professionals and scientific instrumentation specialists to explore current developments in battery coatings, electrode architecture and cell characterisation.
Battery development is inherently multidisciplinary. Understanding and improving battery performance requires expertise spanning materials science, electrochemistry, surface and structural characterisation, thermal behaviour, electrode manufacture and cell engineering.
The WMG Battery Seminar Day has been created to bring these different perspectives together. Throughout the day, speakers from leading UK universities will be joined by specialists in scientific instrumentation and representatives from the battery industry. The programme provides an opportunity to hear about current research, discover complementary approaches to battery characterisation and discuss the challenges encountered when translating research into practical battery technologies.
The day will conclude with an industry panel discussion, laboratory tour and informal networking drinks, providing plenty of opportunity to continue conversations beyond the presentations.
Countdown to event
Why Attend
Progress in battery technology increasingly depends upon collaboration between people working at different stages of the development process.
Academic researchers may be developing new materials, coatings and electrode architectures. Industrial scientists and engineers face the challenge of translating these advances into reliable, manufacturable technologies.
At the same time, analytical and instrument specialists are developing increasingly sophisticated ways of understanding the chemical, electrochemical, thermal and physical processes occurring within battery materials and cells.
Control the route
WMG Battery Seminar Day is designed to connect these communities.
Rather than focusing on a single analytical technique or area of battery science, the seminar will provide different perspectives on battery coatings, electrode architecture and cell characterisation, with contributions from academia, industry and instrumentation specialists.
The emphasis throughout the day will be on sharing knowledge, making connections and encouraging discussion between specialists who may approach the same battery challenges from very different perspectives.
- Hear from leading researchers working across battery materials, electrodes and cell technologies.
- Explore different approaches to electrochemical, thermal, microscopic and materials characterisation.
- Understand how advanced instrumentation can help investigate battery performance and degradation.
- Hear industrial perspectives on the challenges involved in developing and commercialising battery technologies.
- Discuss research and measurement challenges directly with academics, instrument specialists and industry professionals.
- Develop new connections across the UK battery research and industrial community.
What Will I Learn?
The programme has been designed to provide a multidisciplinary view of battery research and characterisation rather than concentrating on a single measurement technique.
Presentations from academic researchers will provide insight into current battery research, while instrumentation specialists will introduce complementary analytical approaches that can help researchers understand materials, electrodes and electrochemical systems in greater detail.
Instrument specialists will also discuss how different analytical techniques can be used together to investigate how materials behave, why cell performance changes and how localised, electrochemical, thermal and microscopic measurements can provide complementary information.
An afternoon Industry Panel will bring an additional perspective to these discussions, exploring current challenges and opportunities across battery research, development and commercialisation.
The objective is not simply to present individual technologies, but to encourage attendees to think about how expertise from academia, industry and scientific instrumentation can be combined to solve battery research and development challenges.
EVENT AGENDA
This programme has been developed to bring together academic researchers, battery-industry professionals and scientific instrumentation specialists to share knowledge across battery coatings, electrode architecture and cell characterisation.
Each session is designed to offer a different perspective on battery research, from materials and electrochemistry through to thermal analysis, microscopy, cell performance and real-world industry challenges
WMG Battery Seminar Day Agenda
Doors open, registration & coffee
Welcome & introduction SciMed
Professor Emma Kendrick — University of Birmingham
Dave Dale – SciMed / C-Therm
Professor Alexander Roberts — Coventry University
Coffee Break
Professor Chun Ann Huang — Imperial College London
Bryn Jones — SciMed / Gamry Instruments
Dr Gerard Bree — WMG, University of Warwick
Lunch
Andrew Searle — SciMed / SEM
Dr James Robinson — University College London
SciMed Instrument Specialist — speaker/topic TBC
Industry Panel — Perspectives from across the battery industry
Closing remarks
Laboratory tour
Informal networking drinks at The Varsity (optional)
Guest Speakers
Professor Louis Piper
University of Warwick.
His research focuses on battery materials, prototype cell development and advanced characterisation, using X-ray and related techniques to understand materials and interfaces in working batteries. He has a strong focus on accelerating the development of new battery materials by combining operando characterisation with manufacture and testing in commercially relevant cell formats.
Professor Alexander Roberts
Professor in Energy Storage — Coventry University
Professor Alexander Roberts is Professor in Energy Storage at Coventry University. His research covers battery materials, electrode development and characterisation, with a strong focus on translating academic research into practical clean-technology solutions through collaboration with industry.
Professor Chun Ann Huang
Professor of Energy Storage Materials — Imperial College London
Professor Chun Ann Huang is Professor of Energy Storage Materials at Imperial College London. Her research focuses on battery materials, electrode processing and advanced characterisation, including operando and correlative imaging to better understand transport and chemical behaviour within complex electrode structures.
Dr Gerard Bree
Battery Materials and Cells — WMG, University of Warwick
Dr Gerard Bree works within WMG’s battery research community at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on improving lithium-ion battery performance, lifetime and cost, with strong links between academic research, industrial application and development of the wider battery supply chain.
Dr James Robinson
Associate Professor in Advanced Propulsion — University College London
Dr James Robinson is Associate Professor in Advanced Propulsion at UCL. His research covers battery performance, degradation, safety and next-generation chemistries, with particular interests in electrode microstructure, transport and industry collaboration to improve battery performance and sustainability.
Professor Emma Kendrick
Chair of Energy Materials — University of Birmingham
Professor Emma Kendrick is Chair of Energy Materials at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on sustainable battery technologies, including electrode manufacture, diagnostics, recycling and next-generation chemistries. She also brings extensive industry experience, with a strong focus on translating battery research into practical applications.
Academic Speakers
The afternoon will feature an industry panel bringing together representatives from across the battery sector.
The discussion will provide an opportunity to hear industrial perspectives on the challenges facing battery research, development and commercialisation, while exploring emerging technologies and future opportunities within the sector.
The panel will also provide an opportunity for questions and discussion with attendees, helping connect the scientific topics discussed throughout the day with the practical challenges encountered in industry.
Further details of the panel will be announced closer to the event.
Guest Speakers
Bryn Jones
Product Manager — SciMed | Gamry Products
Bryn specialises in electrochemical instrumentation for battery and energy research. As SciMed’s Product Manager for Gamry, he supports researchers using potentiostats and EIS across materials, batteries and energy-storage applications, drawing on previous academic and industrial R&D experience.
Dave Dale
Product Manager — SciMed | Thermal Methods
Dave specialises in thermal methods, supporting academic and industrial laboratories with material thermal characterisation. His work in battery research focuses on understanding heat transfer, material behaviour and thermal management.
Andrew Searle
Product Manager — SciMed | SEM & Ion-Beam Milling
Andrew specialises in SEM and ion-beam milling, supporting advanced materials characterisation and sample preparation. His work helps researchers examine battery materials and electrode structures in detail, including morphology and microstructure at high spatial resolution.
Yasmin Labibi
Product Manager — SciMed
Yasmin is a Product Manager at SciMed, supporting academic and industrial customers with analytical instrumentation and materials-characterisation technologies.
David Belis
Application Support Specialist Spectroscopy and SEM
David has over 25 years’ of experience in elemental analysis and other analytical techniques, working in academia, research, and industry. He joined SciMed in October 2020 specialising in Analytik Jena instrumentation
SciMed Instrument Specialists
Alongside the academic and industry speakers, SciMed’s instrument specialists will introduce complementary approaches to battery and materials characterisation.
These sessions are intended to demonstrate how different measurement technologies can contribute to battery research and provide attendees with an opportunity to discuss their own characterisation challenges directly with specialists in the relevant techniques.
What’s Included
Event Location + Details
Date: Tuesday 13 October 2026
Time: 9.30am – 17:30 pm (UK time)
Cost: £ FREE
Location:
Advanced Propulsion Centre Showcase Area
IIPSI Building
University Road
Coventry
CV4 7AL
Advanced Propulsion Centre Showcase Area
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About Scimed
SciMed is a leading supplier of scientific instrumentation in the UK and Ireland, specialising in supplying analytical instrumentation and process equipment from industry-leading manufacturers.
The company has been in operation for 40 years and caters to various industries ranging from academic institutions, large-scale industry and contract testing laboratories to start-ups and SMEs.
SciMed takes pride in helping scientists, engineers and technicians solve their analytical and process challenges, providing effective aftersales care for the lifetime of their customers’ investments.