M. Saiful Islam

Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry: M. Saiful Islam

Credit: Courtesy of M. Saiful Islam

M. Saiful Islam

Sponsor: Henry H. Storch Endowment

Citation: For his outstanding contributions to the fundamental atomistic understanding of new materials for energy storage and conversion devices, including lithium batteries and perovskite solar cells.

Current position: Professor of materials chemistry, University of Bath

Education: BSc and PhD, chemistry, University College London

Islam on what gets his creative juices flowing: “Discussing new exciting results with my talented students and postdocs. Having the relative freedom to carry out fundamental research is very rewarding. I’m a chemist who doesn’t wear a lab coat, using modelling techniques to study battery and solar cell materials. So when people ask me what I do, I sometimes say ‘I model!’ At the atomic level, crystalline solids can be as visually aesthetic as the arts.”

What his colleagues say: “Islam has established a world-class research program with an international profile. In particular, his work has played a key role in the development of atomistic models for the mechanisms of lithium-ion transport in novel cathode and electrolyte materials.”— Sossina Haile, Northwestern University