Dr Heather Au
Royal Society University Research Fellow at Imperial College London
Chemistry · Engineering
Heather Au is rethinking what a battery can be and what a battery can do. Through her research, she is designing batteries not only as components of an object, but as something that can become a part of an object’s structure and design.
Imagine airplanes powered by batteries that were also the cabin walls, or vehicles powered by battery-doors, Heather’s research focuses on designing these materials to be lightweight, structurally sound and energy efficient.
Heather has always been curious about the materials that are hidden inside everyday objects, as well as how they are made and what happens to them at the end of their life. She carries this into her own work, using waste by-products from other industries, for example lignin from paper manufacturing, as the starting point for new technologies.
This lens shapes Heather’s approach to sustainability. By questioning how materials are sourced, used and ultimately disposed of, she is exploring how future technologies can do more with less. Through her work, she invites us to imagine a future where materials do more than we expect of them, helping to power a more sustainable world while changing how we think about design, waste and resource use.
