Shurui Miao

Fellowship: Career Development Research Fellowship

Title of the research: Natural Electrolyte Solutions for Rapid Carbon Mineralisation and Storage

About the research

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges faced by our society today. It is largely due to the elevating levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Reports now highlight that in addition to achieving global net-zero, removal and storage of carbon dioxide is also crucial for avoiding many climate disasters. As part of the weathering process on Earth, carbon dioxide is converted to carbonate minerals over thousands of years. Recent studies demonstrated this natural process can be drastically accelerated as a secure, cost-effective, and low maintenance approach for scalable carbon sequestration. However, our understanding of how it works is limited due to the complexity of natural processes and the fast kinetics of crystallisation. This lack of fundamental understanding impedes the modification and optimisation of this technology for it to be implemented widely around the world. By combining a number of experimental techniques with atomic resolutions, we aim to visualise and understand the strength and origin of interactions that govern the mineralisation process. The atomic insight gained in this study will also improve our understanding of classical and non-classical crystallisation mechanisms and be applied to the controlled preparation of crystalline materials.

How will this fellowship help my career progression?

The Career Development Fellowship provides my postdoctoral salary and an annual research allowance for 4 years. This allows me to pursue interesting and challenging research questions, while establishing my independence as an early-career researcher. The fellowship is hosted by one of the largest colleges, providing unparalleled opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research and encourages me to communicate my work with a broader audience. Furthermore, the fellowship allows up to 0.1 FTE of non-research work, allowing me to be involved in teaching and other duties to gain experience in all aspects of an academic career.

The support the University provides

The Department of Chemistry, and the University of Oxford in general, offer a portfolio of training courses through the Researcher Development Framework. As an example workshops on career development, grant writing, and teaching are offered regularly. In addition, Oxford Chemistry is dedicated to supporting early career researchers with dedicate staff in the Research Facilitation team to support and advise on relevant funding applications. A range of social and networking events are also supported by the department to encourage information exchange across sections and promote intra-departmental collaborations.

Background

I graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor degree in Chemistry (Adv, Hons, Class I) from the University of Sydney, Australia. I continued to pursue postgraduate studies at the same university working with Prof. Gregory Warr. In December 2022, I moved to the University of Oxford joining Prof. Susan Perkin as a postdoctoral research associate. In 2024, I was elected as a Career Development Research Fellow in Chemistry at St John’s College.