Marie-Therese Srbik, PhD

In my fourth year of study as a mechanical engineering undergraduate at Imperial I found research to be a really exciting area to be involved in and I was keen to do more of it. I am now completing a PhD working with lithium ion batteries.

As well as looking at the chemistry that goes on, my group also considers what it means, how it can be made useful, how can what we do actually make an impact in industry. We also get a lot of exposure to industrial clients - making us much more employable than if we were sheltered in a bubble of research. 

The title of my PhD is advanced lithium ion battery modelling for automotive applications. I basically try and make electric vehicles more energy efficient, reducing the amount of batteries you need to have in them.

This makes the vehicles cheaper and more competitive in relation to the conventional vehicles on the road. So in essence what I’ve tried to do is take a step towards a greener transport system.

We have an excellent development programme at Imperial College that provides several useful add-on courses to our research. You learn how to prepare for job interviews, how to present and pitch ideas, how to make a business model out of what you have done and how to patent things.

In addition, our supervision is exceptional. You are watched from your first day and you are given choice in what you want to do. So if you decide that batteries take your fancy or you really want to go into regenerative braking, there is enough flexibility in the research programmes to allow you to go down your chosen path. Also although you are in one research group, you are taken on as part of a research family and you are well looked after. 

I’m hoping to go into research and development in industry after my PhD, and I think all of the skills I have learnt at Imperial in team organisation and project management have equipped me well for this.  

"As a PhD student at Imperial, you get a lot of exposure to industrial clients"