Dr Lauren Hatcher
Royal Society University Research Fellow at Cardiff University
Chemistry
Lauren Hatcher is the director of “molecular movies”, creating stop-motion films of atoms and molecules as they respond to light. With time as her fourth dimension, she captures snapshots of processes unfolding too quickly, and at too small a scale, for us to see, revealing the tiny movements that shape everything from solar cells and light sensors to the materials of the future.
Using advanced X-ray techniques and working with light-responsive materials, she seeks to understand how light can be more effectively converted into energy. By uncovering what happens inside materials at the atomic scale, her research helps lay the foundations for more efficient and sustainable technologies.
Lauren sees research like solving a puzzle, piecing together frames of the world to understand how things work and how they might be improved. Curiosity is one of the most important skills a scientist can have, according to Lauren, and she thinks that some of the most important discoveries come from following the unexpected results, asking new questions and recognising the victories in failure.
To Lauren, the world is full of motion, change and invisible possibilities. Beneath the surface of a table, solar panel or even the atoms within them, molecules are constantly moving and interacting. By finding new ways to see those hidden movements, she hopes to uncover the insights that will help shape the next generation of sustainable technologies.
