The Marshall Electrocatalysis and Electrochemical Engineering Research Group

Our group is made up of chemical engineers and chemists 
Professor Aaron Marshall

Aaron Marshall received his BTech(Hons) before completing his MTech(Hons) from Massey University, NZ in 2002. In 2005 he received his PhD from NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, for work on electrocatalytic oxides. Aaron joined the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Canterbury, NZ in 2009, where he teaches thermodynamics and reaction engineering, is a Principal Investigator at MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and leads the Marshall Electrocatalysis and Electrochemical Engineering Research Group.

Post Doctoral Fellows
Dr. Shailendra Sharma

Shailendra is postdoctoral fellow in the Marshall group working on development of anode materials for PEM water electrolysers. Dr Sharma completed his PhD at the University of Canterbury where he investigated electrochemical reduction of CO2 onto ultra-small Au clusters. He pursued his undergraduate in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India. His research interest primarily focuses on understanding surfaces and their catalytic properties. Besides, spending time in lab Shailendra likes to read/write poetry and play cricket. 

Dr. Chang Wu

Chang Wu is currently a postdoc in Chemical and Process Engineering department, specifically investigating on catalyst of Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyser (AEMWE). He received his Ph.D. (research on the advanced electrodes for metal-O2 batteries) in the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) at the Australian Institute of Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong (UOW). He received his bachelor's degree in Material Science and Engineering in Dalian University of Technology, China. In his spare time, he loves to go to gym and watch movies.

Dr.Alex Heenan

Alex grew up in Otautahi Christchurch, studying a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Chemical and Process Engineering, with a minor in Renewable Energy Technologies. He has completed his PhD in the Marshall Research Group at the University of Canterbury, studying the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on copper electrodes. He is now working as a post-doctoral fellow. In his spare time, he loves to go mountain biking and trail running, with some saying he spends more time with his bikes than his girlfriend. To date, he has published three journal articles as first author, and co-authored another paper looking at the economics of potential hydrogen carriers for export.

Research Associates
Sophie McArdle

Sophie was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand, before moving to Christchurch to complete a Bachelor of Chemical and Process Engineering (Hons) at the University of Canterbury. In 2021 she began her PhD investigating electrode reaction kinetics for vanadium flow batteries and has recently submitted her thesis. She is continuing her work on electrodes for flow batteries as a Research Associate while she waits to defend her PhD. In her spare time she likes running, surfing, trips to the beach, and has recently started Muay Thai.

Doctoral Candidates
Laura Titheridge

Laura Titheridge is interested in renewable energy technologies, net zero transition pathways, and green hydrogen applications. She is particularly interested in anion exchange membrane electrolysers, her project to develop highly active anodes for anion exchange membrane electrolysers to enable low-cost green hydrogen is supported by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. She has completed a techno-economic analysis of the technology and presented her findings at New Zealand’s Inaugural Hydrogen Symposium. She is currently developing a strategy on how she will test materials and optimise the membrane-electrode assembly for highly stable and productive performances. Prior to joining the University of Canterbury, she completed her MEng(Hons) Chemical Engineering with Industrial Study at the University of Birmingham, England, UK, in 2022. Her industrial placement year with Air Products in 2020 gave her valuable exposure to green hydrogen projects.

Pitambar Poudel

Pitambar is interested in vanadaium redox flow batteries. He is currently researching catalytic carbon for redox flow batteries. Recently he completed his MSc in Chemistry, in which he conducted a computational investigation of potential decomposition pathways to produce short-lived ketenes. Pitambar enjoys athletics, football and hiking.

Campbell Tiffin

Campbell recently completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Chemical and Process Engineering with a minor in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the University of Canterbury in his hometown. His PhD focuses on the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to value added chemicals. Specifically, he is investing effect of porous electrodes on the selectivity and efficiency of electrochemical CO2 reduction. Outside of the lab, Campbell enjoys a variety of sports including mountain biking, road cycling, classic trials, and golf.

Glen McClea

Glen is a PhD Candidate in the Marshall Research Group. His masters focuses on photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting for the production of green hydrogen, specifically looking at the development of stable and low-cost photoanodes. He is continuing his study at the University of Canterbury, having recently completed his undergraduate (BE(Hons)) in Chemical and Process Engineering. Glen’s research interests include green hydrogen production, surface catalysis, and semiconductor materials. Outside of study, Glen likes to play/watch rugby, cricket, and golf.

Group Alumni
2024
Kathryn Ford

Kathryn completed a BE(Hons) in 2019 and a PhD on Ultra-high Temperature Molten Oxide Electrolysis: Investigating Simple Binary Oxide Systems Towards Metal Production of Critical Metals in 2024 here in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Canterbury. This research has given her insight into multiple analytical techniques for electrochemical and physical characterisation of systems, such as cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry, and X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Energy-dispersive spectroscopy. She enjoyed the hands-on problem solving and experimental aspects of her thesis. Outside of her studies she enjoys camping, day-walks and hiking as well as dabbling in arts and crafts like painting, sketching, and wood burning.

2023
Johan Hamonnet 

Johan completed his undergraduate in general sciences in Britanny, west France, from 2011 to 2014. He then completed two master's degrees in parallel from 2015 to 2017, one in Chemical Engineering at the graduate school of Chemistry of Pessac, and one in Physics and Chemistry of Materials at the University of Bordeaux, southwest France. After which he worked for two years as a research engineer at RIKEN institute in Wako, Japan, developing materials and methods for organic solar cells. In 2019 he started his PhD on the development of materials for the CO2 electrochemical reduction reaction with Aaron, and has recently submitted his thesis. He is currently pursuing a Postdoc focusing on new materials for Li-Ion batteries in Trondheim, Norway, and is hoping to get a permanent academic position in the future.

2022
  • Sam Nesbit "Development of a Photoanode for a Solar Redox Flow Battery" (PhD student - completed 2022)
  • Megan Girdwood "A clean method of extracting vanadium from New Zealand vanadium slag" (ME student - completed 2022)
2021
  • Shailendra Sharma "Synthesis and activation of metal cluster-based electrocatalysts for CO₂ reduction" (PhD student - completed 2021)
  • Maryam Shojaei "Nano-textured photoelectrochemical anodes" (PhD student - completed 2021)
  • Rebecca Newport "Investigation of alkali metal oxides as supporting electrolytes for metal production via high temperature molten oxide electrolysis" (ME student - completed 2021)
  • Zain Kader "Sustainable recycling technologies for lithium-ion batteries" (ME student - completed 2021)
2020
  • Leatham Landon-Lane "Redox flow batteries" (PhD student - completed 2020)
  • Samuel Martin Treceno "Ultra-high temperature titanium oxide electrolysis" (PhD student - completed 2020)
  • Maxime Savoie "Photoelectrochemical redox batteries" (PhD student - completed 2020)
2019
  • Hani Taleshiahangari "Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction" (PhD student - completed 2019)
  • Asad Kariman "Electrochemical wastewater treatment" (PhD student - completed 2019)
  • Jonathan Ring "Treatment of and recovery of zinc from spent pickling liquors" (ME student - completed 2019)
  • Nicholas Weaver "Thermodynamic characterisation and simulation for the electrolytic extraction of titanium from oxide melts" (ME student - completed 2019)
2018
  • Toby Baldhoff "Through-mask electrochemical micromachining of microchannels" (PhD student - completed 2018)
  • Thomas Hughes "Ultra-high temperature titanium oxide electrolysis" (ME student - completed 2018) Co-Supervisor with Matt Watson
  • Ryan Kirk "Atomically-Precise Gold and Silver Nanoclusters" (MSc student - completed 2018). Co-Supervisor with Vladimir Golovko
2017
  • Calvin Lim "Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide conversion to methanol" (PhD student - completed 2017)
  • Jared Steven "The electrochemical stability of gold nanoparticles and the catalytic reduction of carbon dioxide" (PhD student - completed 2017)
  • Matthew MacDonald "Photo-Fenton catalysts supported on microporous materials for industrial pollutant oxidation" (PhD student - completed 2017) Co-Supervisor with Alex Yip
2016
  • Fazly Abdul Patah "Entrained Flow Gasification of Pyrolysis Oil of Radiata Pine Woody Biomass" (PhD student - completed 2016) Associate-Supervisor with Shusheng Pang
  • Sophie Mellsop "Development of electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline water electrolysis" (PhD student - completed 2016)
2014
  • Janjira Hongrapipat "Removal of NH3 and H2S from biomass gasification producer gas" (PhD student - complete 2014) Associate-Supervisor with Shusheng Pang
2013
  • Diandree Padayachee "Development of electrocatalysts for glycerol oxidation" (PhD student - completed 2013)
  • Chris Penniall "Microchannel reactors for Fischer Tropsch" (PhD student - completed 2013) Associate-Supervisor with Chris Williamson
  • E. Evelyn "Microbial Fuel Cells" (ME student - completed 2013) Co-Supervisor with Peter Gostomksi
  • Yan Li "Microbial Fuel Cells" (ME student - completed 2013) Co-Supervisor with Peter Gostomksi

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