The Team

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, specialising in particle engineering for next-generation electrodes. My current research builds upon my PhD work in multiphase particle engineering for advanced electrode manufacturing, which I completed under the supervision of Professor Rachel Smith and Dr. Denis Cumming. I also hold an MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield.

Hamidreza Farhadi Tolie is currently a Research Fellow at the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick. He received his B.Sc. in Information Technology Engineering (2018) and M.Sc. in Computer Science (2021) from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Iran, and obtained his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence in 2025 from the School of Computing, Engineering, and Technology at Robert Gordon University, UK. His research interests include image processing, computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, and data science.

Naresh is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, working on the Nextrode project with a focus on developing dry electrode manufacturing processes. He has a strong background in both industry (Faradion) and academia (University of Sheffield), with expertise in sodium- and lithium-ion battery cathode materials synthesis, characterization, scale-up, electrode fabrication, cell testing, and post-mortem analysis to understand performance and degradation mechanisms.

Sam is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and splits his time between the Energy Materials Group and the Mixing and Multiphase Group, as part of the NEXTRODE project. Focusing on the mixing and rheological properties of electrode inks, utilising techniques such as Particle Imaging Velocimetry and Positron Emission Particle Tracking.  Sam received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Bristol, as part of the Soft Matter Group. His work focused on the stability of colloid-polymer gels, used in the formulation of personal care and agrochemical products.

Dr Hyuntae Kim is a control theorist with a PhD from Seoul National University, where he studied disturbance observers and data-driven control. Before joining Nextrode, he worked at the University of Oxford on controller design for the Diamond Light Source. At Nextrode, he aims to advance manufacturing process control for high-performance electrodes, bridging rigorous theory with practical, scalable implementation.

Juntao Li is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He obtained his MSc degree at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and completed his PhD at University College London in 2021. His PhD research focused on designing MOF based materials for electrocatalyst and energy storage materials, with the aim to study synthesis-structure-device relationships and to develop novel high-performance electrode materials. His current work focusses on the development of lithium battery electrodes and optimisation of the porous structure of the electrode.

Guillaume Matthews is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He obtained a first-class MEng degree in Chemical Engineering from UCLouvain in Belgium and a DPhil in Materials Science from the University of Oxford. His work for Nextrode focusses on the development of novel manufacturing routes for Li-ion battery electrodes. He is an expert in Manufacturing and Materials Characterisation and teaches Materials Science at the University of Oxford.

Zhonghua Ren obtained his BS degree in Mineral Processing Engineering from Central South University, China in 2010, and completed his MS and PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, China in 2012 and 2018, respectively. His PhD research focused mainly on developing novel micro-/nanoscale and porous materials for energy storage and conversion (batteries, supercapacitors, electrocatalysis). In April 2020, he joined the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral research assistant. He is working on the development of next generation Lithium-ion batteries.

Alok is a PDRA at the University of Sheffield. He has recently submitted his thesis for review as part of his dual MSc. and PhD degree program at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India. His doctoral research primarily focuses on the application of the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to model the behaviour of non-cohesive, cohesive, spherical, and non-spherical particles subjected to vertical vibration. Within the Nextrode project, he will be performing DEM based simulations to gain better insight into the structures of lithium-ion battery electrodes during the process of calendering.

Dongrui is a Research Fellow in the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham. Prior to the University of Birmingham, he was a research assistant at Loughborough University, working on MAP-IT project from the Faraday Institution. Dongrui did his BSc in Materials Physics at Sichuan University, while he joined LCMP (Loughborough China Materials Partnership) project in 2016. He obtained his MSc and PhD degree from Loughborough University in 2018 and 2023. He is currently working on the innovations in metrology for the electrode manufacturing process.