Dame Clare Philomena Grey is Geoffrey Moorhouse Gibson Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Grey uses

nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, most commonly known as NMR spectroscopy or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), is a spectroscopic technique to observe local magnetic fields around atomic nuclei. The sample is placed in a magnetic fie ...

to study and optimize batteries.

Education

Grey received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1987 followed by a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in chemistry in 1991, both from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Her doctoral thesis, under the supervision of

Anthony Cheetham Sir Anthony Kevin Cheetham (born 16 November 1946) is a British materials scientist. From 2012 to 2017 he was Vice-President and Treasurer of the Royal Society. Education Cheetham was educated at Stockport Grammar School and read chemistry at ...

, used

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

(NMR) spectroscopy and

magic angle spinning In solid-state NMR spectroscopy, magic-angle spinning (MAS) is a technique routinely used to produce better resolution NMR spectra. MAS NMR consists in spinning the sample (usually at a frequency of 1 to 130 kHz) at the magic angle θm (ca ...

(MAS) to study

rare-earth The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silve ...

pyrochlore Pyrochlore () is a mineral group of the niobium end member of the pyrochlore supergroup. The general formula, (where A and B are metals), represent a family of phases isostructural to the mineral pyrochlore. Pyrochlores are an important class of ...

Career and research

Following Grey's graduate studies, she held a

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

position at the

University of Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century ...

. From 1992 to 1993, she worked as a visiting researcher at DuPont. In 1994, Grey was appointed a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and became full professor in 2001. In 2009, she became the Geoffrey Moorhouse Gibson Professor in Materials Chemistry at the

. From 2009 to 2010 she was the Director of the Northeastern Chemical Energy Storage Center, and Associate Director from 2011 to 2014. She is current the director of the EPSRC Centre for Advanced Materials for Integrated Systems.

Battery research

Grey pioneered the application of

to study and improve the performance of batteries, particularly

lithium ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also see ...

. She also made major contributions to the development of lithium-air batteries. Grey is co-founder of Nyobolt, a company which specializes in niobium-based batteries.

Honours and awards

Grey was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

(FRS) in 2011 and awarded the

Günther Laukien Prize The Günther Laukien Prize is a prize presented at the European Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference "to recognize recent cutting-edge experimental NMR research with a high probability of enabling beneficial new applications". The prize was establ ...

in 2013 followed by the

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). H ...

in 2014 for "''further pioneering applications of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance to materials of relevance to energy and the environment''." She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to science. Other awards, honours and career highlights include: *2008 Vaughan Lecturer *2010 John Jeyes Award from the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...

*2011 Kavli Medal *2013

ENC Monday Bruker Party, Laukien Prize Awarded To Clare Grey , TheResonance – Bruker's Blog about NMR, EPR and MRI
*2015 Arfvedson-Schlenk Award, for outstanding scientific and technical achievements in lithium chemistry *2017 Prix Franco-Britannique from the Société Chimique de France * 2018 Interviewed by

Jim Al-Khalili Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili ( ar, جميل صادق الخليلي; born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in scien ...

for ''

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, dra ...

'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

first broadcast March 2018 *2019

John B. Goodenough Award *2020

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "in recognition of an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications". Named after David E. Hughes, the medal is awarded with ...

*2021 Körber European Science Prize

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grey, Clare Philomena 20th-century British chemists Living people 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British chemists 21st-century British women scientists British women chemists Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Female Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Stony Brook University faculty Rare earth scientists 1965 births Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire