School of Chemistry PhD student wins RSC Roy Prize

Isolde Marsland, a PhD student in the Kirk Group at the School of Chemistry, was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Roy Prize for the best oral presentation by a PhD student at the 44th Solid State Chemistry Group (SSCG) Christmas Meeting, held on 16–17 December 2025.

The annual SSCG Christmas Meeting is a well-established national conference that brings together researchers from across solid state and materials chemistry, providing an important platform for researchers to share and discuss their work. Winning the Roy Prize represents a significant achievement and recognition of the quality of Isolde’s research.

Isolde received the prize for her talk, “The Development of Electrode Materials from Bio-Precipitates”, which highlighted her research focusing on converting bacteria-made materials, derived from used battery waste, into new electrode materials, offering a viable and sustainable route to cathode recycling.

Isolde Marsland RSC Roy Prize December 2025 — Isolde Marsland RSC Roy Prize DEC 2025 best oral presentation by a PhD student at the 44th RSC Solid State Chemistry Group (SSCG) Christmas Meeting

The findings have exciting implications for promoting circular economy practices within energy storage technologies, as well as fostering more sustainable routes to critical metal recovery. This work was also published earlier last year in Advanced Energy Materials.

Isolde’s PhD research takes place under the co-supervision of Professor Caroline Kirk (School of Chemistry) and Professor Louise Horsfall (School of Biological Sciences), reflecting a collaborative approach across disciplines. The award highlights both Isolde’s research achievements and the supportive research environment within the University of Edinburgh School of Chemistry, which continues to foster high-quality research and impactful contributions to the wider chemistry community.

Commenting on being awarded the RSC Roy Prize, Isolde said;

I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to present our research at the SSCG meeting, and even more thrilled to have received the Roy Prize! Presenting the work and discussing it with members of the solid-state chemistry community was a really valuable experience.

Isolde’s PhD co-supervisor, Professor Caroline Kirk commented:

I am delighted that Isolde won this prestigious RSC Solid State Group Chemistry Roy prize. Her presentation was outstanding and received extremely well by colleagues in the community. I am incredibly proud of Isolde’s work and this fantastic achievement.

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