Professor Dame Clare Grey from our department has been awarded a prestigious Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in recognition of her pioneering work advancing sustainable technologies.
Clare arrived in our department in 2009 as Geoffrey-Moorhouse-Gibson and Royal Society Professor of Chemistry and is a Fellow of Pembroke College. She pioneered using solid-state NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy and diffraction techniques.
Her research investigates materials used in energy storage such as batteries and supercapacitors to improve their lifetime and efficiency, which has significant implications for sustainability especially in transport, renewable energy storage and modern electronics. She was the first researcher to apply NMR spectroscopy to batteries to discover their atomic structures and how these relate to performance.
In light of her groundbreaking work, the Royal Society of Chemistry has honoured her with an Honorary Fellowship which is awarded to individuals with exceptional impact on the chemical sciences and their wider benefit to society. Clare and the seven other honourees will be formally presented with their awards at Burlington House in July.
Dr Annette Doherty, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “The distinction of Honorary Fellow celebrates those whose ideas have transformed our understanding of the world, and Professor Dame Clare Grey has done exactly that through her pioneering work in energy storage and materials chemistry.
“I am delighted to see her recognised for research that has reshaped battery science, from fundamental insights into electrochemical processes to innovations that support the transition to cleaner, more sustainable energy systems. Her leadership has helped bridge the gap between cutting‑edge research and real‑world technological change.
“Her contributions continue to influence how we think about energy, sustainability and the future of our planet. I extend my warmest congratulations to her, and to all of this year’s new Honorary Fellows, for the remarkable impact of their work.”
Alongside her role at the University of Cambridge, Clare is a central figure in the Faraday Institution, the UK’s flagship battery research organisation, which supports research, spin-outs and policy guidance around energy storage science. She is also Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Nyobolt, a spinout building faster, more-efficient batteries from materials she has studied in her research at the department.
She is currently the director of the EPSRC Centre for Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems (CAM-IES) which supports energy research across the University, fostering new connections between exciting energy research areas.
Other notable honours and awards include Honorary PhD Degrees from the Universities of Orleans (2012) and Lancaster (2013), the Royal Society Davy Award (2014), the RSC John Goodenough Award (2019), the Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance (2020), the RS Hughes Award (2020) for contributions in the field of energy and the 2021 Körber European Science prize.
The Department warmly congratulates Clare on this remarkable achievement.
