ProfessorStephen Skinner, FRSE

Stephen Skinner joined Imperial College in 1998 and was promoted to Professor in 2014. In March 2021 he was appointed Ceres Power/RAEng Research Chair in Electrochemical Devices for a Zero Carbon Economy. His research interests are in materials for new energy technologies and is primarily concerned with the chemical and physical properties of solid oxide fuel cell electrolytes and electrodes and encompasses the electrical and structural characteristics of materials. He has extensive experience of the use of neutron and synchrotron facilities to undertake in-situ high temperature characterisation of new materials and in relating the structural characteristics of materials to their electrochemical properties. A particular field of interest is the development of interstitial oxide ion conductors for fuel cell applications. Further details about his research group can be found at stephenskinnerlab.com. He has collaborated widely throughout Europe, Canada and Japan on new materials development and continues to develop links with research groups worldwide. His group are also engaged in the development of high temperature electrolysers based on both oxide ion and proton conducting oxides, permeation membranes, sensor coatings and solid state electrochemical sensors.

Stephen has partnered with European colleagues in two European Commisson funded projects. Hermes (www.hermesproject.eu) was led by University of Turku, Finland, where our role was to probe proton transport in high temperature oxides. The second project, Epistore, (www.epistore.eu),  led by IREC, Spain, with partners in France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland had its focus on the production and use of hydrogen in thin film solid oxide cells. Further collaborations have been supported by JST Aspire, with colleagues in Kyushu, Institute of Science, Tokyo and Kumamoto University and with SLB in the area of proton ceramic cells. 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, and also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Stephen is a member of The Electrochemical Society and the American Ceramic Society. He is also a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Chemist and Chartered Scientist.

Stephen chairs the Royal Society of Edinburgh Asia Pacific Working Group, with a focus on supporting and expanding the RSE activities in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. He also leads a programme at Imperial Global Singapore, funded by the Natioanl Research Foundation, and in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University and the University of Cambridge.