Battery Safety UK 2026

Dr. Edwin Knobbe is responsible for the technical coordination of electro-chemical-based simulations of battery cells in the Battery Cell Competence Centre (BCCC) at the BMW Group. At the BCCC, the BMW Group has built up the complete infrastructure that is required to investigate and develop battery cells, from material level to complete battery cells in target format, where the BMW Group is pursuing the goal of understanding every aspect of battery cell development to meet battery cell suppliers on equal footing (“Smart Buyer”).

Dr. Knobbe studied aerospace engineering at the technical university in Delft. At the TU in Delft, he alsowrotehis doctoral thesis on non-equilibrium thermodynamics governed moving computational meshes. He has been employed at the BMW Group in Munich since 2013, where he reorientated himself from internal combustion engines to battery systems. Initially he worked on new functional concepts for the battery management system, and later in the field of electro-chemical-based simulations of battery cells.

Paul Shearing is Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Department of Engineering Science and Director of the ZERO Institute at Oxford University. He holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Battery Technologies. His research interests centre on the characterisation and understanding of materials for batteries and other energy applications with a major focus on the development of new X-ray techniques.

He was a founding investigator of The Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, where he leads the LiSTAR and Safebatt research programmes. He is a major user of synchrotron and neutron facilities and founded the UK STFC Global Challenge network in Batteries and Electrochemical Devices. He was the recipient of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Silver Medal in 2022 andelecteda Fellow in 2024.

Danny Montgomery has worked at Thermal Hazard Technology for 16 years. His current role is Technical Services Manager, overseeing the lab and technical aspects of instrumentation manufactured by THT. He joined the company in 2009 after graduating from Southampton University with a master’s degree in physics. Danny’s focus is primarily on lithium battery calorimetry; both adiabatic and isothermal. He oversees the use of calorimeters for customer sample testing as well as installing calorimeter systems and provided training for battery and automotive companies worldwide, Danny works in Thermal Hazard Technology’s UK office in Milton Keynes.

Anne Seldon FSaRSis a seasoned engineering leader, safety-critical systems engineer, and consultant specialising in integrity-led functional and systems safety. With over 15 years’ experience across complex, high-consequence industries including aerospace, rail, mining equipment, and motorsport, she has led multidisciplinary teams to deliver safe, reliable systems where uncertainty is high and sound engineering judgement is essential. Anne is a Fellow of the Safety and Reliability Society and was named one of the UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering in 2023 in recognition of her contribution to the profession. Her current work focuses on advancing safety working practices and the responsible integration of emerging AI tools into disciplined engineering workflows, without compromising rigour, accountability, or professional judgement.

Dr. Jingwen Weng is an Imperial College Research Fellow (ICRF) at Imperial College London, where she leads an independent research on electrochemical energy materials, degradation mechanisms, and battery safety. Her research focuses on gas-driven and electrolyte-driven failure mechanisms, as well as battery thermal safety enabled by phase change materials. She has extensive experience in safety-oriented materials and electrolyte designforlithium-ion batteries, and multi-scale studies spanning from cell to system level. She is a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow and an Early Career Editorial Board member of Applied Thermal Engineering, Energy Technology, and Battery Energy.

Dr. Weng collaborates closely with academic and industrial partners to translate fundamental insights into practical strategies for safer batteries and battery energy storage systems.

Dr Melanie Loveridge is an Associate Professor of Electrochemical Materials at WMG. With over 12 years of experience within Li-ion battery research, she has spent equal amounts of time in academic research and as a characterisation specialist for a spin-out company from Imperial College. Her research areas focus on materials discovery and characterisation techniques, but also understanding mechanisms of degradation and battery forensics. Dr Loveridge is a lead inventor on several world patent families around electrode materials, compositions and structures, with > 30 publications in Q1 journals. Since returning to academia, she has won > £ 3 M in research grants from EPSRC calls, Energy Superstore Early Career Research award, The Faraday Institution and H2020’s Graphene Flagship. She sits on many advisory panels and committees for academia and industry and regularly engages with many outreach activities, including the British Science Festival, Radio 4’s Today Program and Costing the Earth, with several media articles published, e.g. The Telegraph. From 2020 Dr Loveridge has been an associate editor for Frontiers in Chemical Engineering and the Special Topics section in MDPI Coatings.

Dr. Wojciech Mrozik serves as a Faraday Institution Senior Research Fellow at Newcastle University, specializing in lithium-ion battery safety. Hisexpertiseencompasses risk assessment, hazard identification, and mitigation strategies for battery failures. Currently, he contributes to the Faraday Institution-funded "Safebatt: Science of battery safety" project and previously worked on "Reuse and Recycling of lithium-ion batteries (ReLiB)".

Dr. Mrozik actively engages with diverse audiences, delivering presentations to industry stakeholders, local governments, and the international research community at conferences and seminars. He also provides specialized training to Fire and Rescue Services both in the UK and internationally. His technical contributions extend to serving as a UK National Expert on multiple CEN and ISO committees, as well as BSI working groups focused on battery standards.

With an impressive academic record, Dr. Mrozik has authored over 40 publications in international journals, achieving an H-Index of 29 and accumulating more than 3,000 citations. He has successfully led numerous research and industry-focused projects centered on battery safety.

Ryan Newton works as a Research Analyst at the Civil Aviation Authority where he seeks to mitigate the risk of an uncontrolled fire in the cargo compartment of an aircraft, due to the carriage of lithium-ion batteries.

Prior to joining the CAA, Ryan worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Melbourne. As a researcher within Experimental Fluid Dynamics, he built experiments to study the drag reduction of shark-skin-inspired surfaces and their manipulation of boundary layer turbulence. As a teacher, Ryan taught international students problem solving, project management and effective communication, motivated by his passion for developing the soft skills of future engineers and for STEM education.

Ryan holds a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College London.

Jonny is a Technical Safety Engineer with over five years of experience in process safety and functional safety across high hazard industries. He has delivered a wide range of safety and risk management studies including HAZID, HAZOP, LOPA, SIL verification, fault analysis, and safety systems engineering for major operators and consultancy clients. Jonny applies IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 principles to complex industrial systems and has a growing interest in how functional safety approaches can support the safe operation of grid scale energy storage.

Duke is a materials scientist and Chief Technology Officer at Natrion Co., specializing in novel materials development for solid-state batteries and fuel cells. He leads the R&D team at Natrion, developing solid-state electrolytes and smart separators for next-generation Li-ion and Li-metal batteries, with deep expertise in electrochemical characterization, abuse tolerance testing, and failure mode analysis. Prior to Natrion, he served as Principal Engineer at Itron Inc, directing battery cell qualification, safety validation, and supply chain de-risking programs. Duke holds a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Imperial College London and degrees from the University of Toronto.