Biography
Sian Dutton is a Professor of Physics and Solid State Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Research in the Dutton group is focused on controlling functional materials and it covers aspects of condensed matter physics with strong links to both chemistry and materials science. It focuses on the preparation and characterisation of a wide range of materials from complex metal oxides insulators to hybrid inorganic-organic semiconductors for a variety of applications including i) established technologies such as Li-ion batteries, ii) emerging technologies including magnetocalorics, and hybrid photovoltaics, iii) exploratory work with potential technological applications, for example Mg-ion batteries. Through understanding the role of the composition, crystal structure and resulting electronic structure on the physical properties we explore the operating and failure mechanisms of materials and ultimately optimise performance. Sian is Director of the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability and is a work-package leader in the Faraday Institution Futurecat programme. Siân was a postdoctoral research associate in the group of Prof. Bob Cava in Princeton University where she worked on geometrically frustrated magnetic systems. Siân completed her DPhil., ‘Synthesis and characterisation of mixed-metal oxides’ under the supervision of Prof. Peter Battle, University of Oxford in 2009.
