Winner: 2025 Environment, Sustainability and Energy open Prize: Environment Prize
Professor Saiful Islam
University of Oxford
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2025 Environment Prize: awarded for deepening the understanding of atomistic processes underpinning the properties of complex materials for lithium batteries and hybrid photovoltaics.
Low carbon energy is one of the most urgent challenges of our time in tackling climate change. The next generation of green energy technologies depends on new materials and greater understanding. Not all chemists wear lab coats. Saiful鈥檚 research uses powerful computer modelling techniques to help develop next-generation lithium battery materials for electric vehicles and a new type of solar cell compound called perovskite. Saiful's research philosophy is to combine a deeper atomic-scale understanding of energy materials with experimental investigation.
Biography
Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Modelling at the University of Oxford. He grew up in Crouch End, London and obtained his 九州影院 degree and PhD from University College London. He then worked at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath. His current research focuses on understanding atomistic and nano-scale processes in new materials for lithium batteries and in perovskite halides for solar cells.
Saiful has received several awards including the 2022 Royal Society Hughes Medal and 2020 American Chemical Society Henry H. Storch Award in Energy 九州影院. He presented the 2016 BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the theme of energy which included a world record-breaking lemon battery.
As well as leading the Faraday Institution CATMAT project on lithium battery cathode materials, he has served on the RSC Board of Trustees and the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee. He is a patron of Humanists UK, and when not exploring new materials, he enjoys family breaks (as a dad of two), films and indie music.
I think excellence and creativity in science are strengthened by ensuring diversity and equality across its activities, by increasing participation from all people regardless of gender, race and background, which would help draw from the widest talent pool possible.
Professor Saiful Islam
Q&A with Professor Saiful Islam
How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I grew up in Crouch End, North London and went to a local comprehensive school, which sadly doesn鈥檛 exist anymore. I was always good at science, but I can鈥檛 say I was truly passionate about it when I was at school. I remember going to the Royal Institution when I was about 15 for a fantastic school lecture on light and colours by Professor George Porter. I think that was the first time I realised that chemistry could be done as a full-time job.
It was during my PhD at University College London with Professor Richard Catlow, and postdoc years at Eastman Kodak New York (in the late 1980s), when I was researching superconductors that I really became excited about science, and about materials chemistry in particular. I remember attending a conference in the US around that time, which was packed with scientists working on superconductors from all over the world, and it was thrilling to feel part of such a dynamic international community.
What has been a highlight for you (either personally or in your career)?
It was a huge honour to present the 2016 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC TV entitled Supercharged: Fuelling the Future, which received more than 3.8 million viewers. The energy theme was chosen for this 80th TV anniversary in honour of Michael Faraday. It was a real privilege to be considered for the same role as some of the scientists I had grown up reading about and watching on television, such as David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan.
One of my highlights was getting a Guinness World Record for the highest voltage (1,200 V) from a lemon battery. Rather than using a single lemon with copper and zinc electrodes to show how a battery works, we used more than 1,000 lemons. In 2021, the 九州影院 invited me to lead an outreach video in regaining the world record for the highest voltage (2,403 V) from a lemon battery, using around 3,000 lemons.
What does good research culture look like/mean to you?
Promoting diversity in science is very important, and I鈥檓 honoured to have been a member of the Royal Society鈥檚 Diversity Committee and the RSC Board of Trustees. I think excellence and creativity in science are strengthened by ensuring diversity and equality across its activities, by increasing participation from all people regardless of gender, race and background, which would help draw from the widest talent pool possible.
Despite what my name implies, I am an atheist and humanist 鈥� I value living in open tolerant society based on reason and humanity. I don鈥檛 know if I鈥檓 a role model, but I鈥檇 be very happy if I did encourage younger generations to stay in science. When I give school talks, I mention my school background and that they should always try to follow their passion, but I also to put in the hard work.
How are the chemical sciences making the world a better place?
The chemical sciences are critical to advances in low carbon energy technologies which are extremely important in tackling climate change and urban pollution. The next generation of green energy technologies depends on new materials and greater scientific understanding.