Close
James was born and raised in Dublin and was awarded a BEng in Chemical Engineering in University College Dublin in 2011. During his undergraduate course he partook in a number of internships including a 3 month placement at DPS Engineering in Dublin and a 9 month placement at the Kilo Technology Laboratory, Pfizer in Cork.
After completing his undergraduate degree James moved to UCL to pursue his PhD in June 2011 under the supervision of Dr. Dan Brett.
Research project
Title: Thermal Imaging of Electrochemical Devices
James' primary reasearch interest is in the thermal imaging of electrochemical devices with particular focus on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC's). Effective operation of electrochemical devices requires careful thermal management in order to ensure stable and reliable operation. Infrared radiation can be used in order to better understand the thermal effects of device operation; enabling high resolution (in both space and time) temperature measurements. This technique enables 'thermal maps' to be developed allowing a visual and mathematical description of the surface temperatures of a wide range of devices.
Throughout his PhD James has worked on a wide range of devices including Li-ion batteries, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells and SOFC's. Throughout these projects a number of operational cause-effect relationships have been investigated including the design architecture of Li-ion batteries and optimising the operational strategies of PEM fuel cells. In addition James has collaborated with a number of facilities including Beamline I-12 at Diamond and Beamline ID15A at ESRF in order to combine X-ray techniques with thermal imaging.
Education
BEng in Chemical Engineering, UCD, 2012
