Dimitra Spathara

After receiving my degree in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Ioannina, Greece, I completed the MSc at Sustainable Energy Systems in 2013, at the University of Edinburgh before starting my PhD project in the School of Metallurgy & Materials, University of Birmingham. I collaborated with Rolls-Royce plc on the industrial challenges of single crystal Ni-based superalloys, during investment casting and heat treatments. This collaboration was further strengthened in my role as Casting Development Research Fellow for the High Temperature Research Centre (HTRC). I developed physics-based models for surface reactions on metallic substrates of multi-component alloys. These improved our understanding on mechanisms such as elemental surface sublimation, physical vapour deposition and high temperature oxidation of single crystal Ni-based superalloys.

I joined the Particle Physics group following a period with the Energy Materials Group in the University of Birmingham, as a member of Faraday Institution. In the context of the Multi-scale Modelling (MSM) project I focused on the thermodynamic, kinetic and physical parameters for the development of physics-based multi-scale battery models.

I have been awarded a UKRI Fellowship (Horizon Europe Guarantee), initially awarded as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Post-doctoral Fellowship. The PureAlloys project aims at the development of new ultra-pure, high-strength, electroformed CuCr alloys for the next generation detectors for rare event searches (e.g. Dark Matter).

Within the PureAlloys project, I am developing my expertise on electrolyte-electrode (metallic) interfaces, in collaboration with Particle Physicists and Chemists. This directly links to my interest on the evolution of materials thermodynamic, kinetic and electrochemical properties during processes that involve interfaces.