Professor Sarah Haigh

Winner: 2022 Analytical Division mid-career Award

The University of Manchester

For the development of transmission electron microscopy methods for advancing understanding of the dynamic behaviour of 2D- and nanomaterials.

Celebrate Professor Sarah Haigh

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This prize is evidence that you can continue to succeed in science with a young family even with the huge additional challenges and stresses imposed by the pandemic over the last years.

Most science and engineering processes occur in liquids or gases. Professor Haigh’s research group uses electron microscopes to study these processes, dynamically, with atomic spatial resolution and chemical sensitivity. Electron microscopes are similar to optical microscopes, but they use electrons instead of light. Electrons can be accelerated to very high speeds, when they have a wavelength 100,000 times smaller than visible light, which gives us the possibility to see atoms.

Applications of their research include studying the early stage synthesis of nanomaterials, the charging and discharging of batteries, the production of electricity from fuel cells or of green fuels from renewable energy, and the corrosion of pipelines or offshore wind turbines. Her research group is particularly interested in the applications for clean energy generation to support the net zero energy transition.

Read winner biography

Sarah Haigh is Professor of Materials Characterisation at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests centre on improving our understanding of nanomaterials structure and properties using transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging and analysis techniques. Her work focuses on (i) advanced TEM characterisation of functional 2D materials and (ii) developing in situ TEM imaging methods, sometimes both at the same time.

Professor Haigh has published around 200 peer reviewed journal papers and five book chapters. She is Director of the Electron Microscopy Centre in the School of Natural Sciences, University of Manchester. She is also Director of the bp International Centre for Advanced Materials, $100m academic-industrial collaboration. She is an elected Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers Company and sits on their Material Science Committee.

In 2004 and 2008, she completed undergraduate and doctorate degrees in material science at the University of Oxford. In her doctoral studies she developed a technique for improving the resolution of TEM images under the supervision of Professor Angus Kirkland. She then worked as consultant application specialist to JEOL UK before joining the University of Manchester as a lecturer in 2010. She was Chair of the Institute of Physics EMAG group (2016–2018) and a member of council for the Royal Microscopy Society (2014–2018).

Q+A

Who or what has inspired you?

I was taught science at secondary school by a teacher called Mr Fitzpatrick who was a lot of fun and made great efforts to include everyone in his love of science. Professor Paul O'Brien (POB) was a hugely supportive colleague and mentor before his early death in 2018. He was always interested in the whole person and very generous with his time and resources. He was quite scarily intelligent and incredibly well read and although his emails were often written at such speed they were hard to decipher, he was a great source of inspiration. I have also benefited from the academic environment developed in Manchester which brought together scientists from many different disciplines (electronic engineering, physics, chemistry, materials and structural biology) to communicate and collaborate. I often don't understand everything that is discussed but from confusion has come some exciting new projects and ideas.

What motivates you?

The main things that motivate me are:

My researchers.
Problem solving: using difficult imaging to find solutions to scientific questions that were baffling me and my colleagues.
Watching atoms dance: not many people get to do that!

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?

I'd tell people to go for it. To consider roles beyond the stereotype of white laboratory coats and see the chemistry all around them. I'd also recommend them to take advantage of whatever mathematics and computer programming courses/resources are available to them: the amount of scientific data available to chemists is increasing incredibly fast so these are skills that will help you to get ahead in almost any area of the subject.

What has been a challenge for you (either personally or in your career)?

Taking maternity leave while running a large research group is very challenging (although the result is worth it). The researchers were very accommodating and tried not to blush while I breast fed in tutorials. Nonetheless, despite having a supportive head of department, supporting students while having had very little sleep and caring for a small human is tough. Maintaining momentum is often key to research progress and this inevitably suffers when you have other priorities and often need to drop everything at short notice. Longer term research funding like the ERC Starter Grant helps make this possible but there are still often unnecessary career barriers in place for those with caring responsibilities. A small improvement would be more conferences considering including details of accessing flexible childcare provision (there is a great conference in Germany that does this).

What does good research culture look like/mean to you?

To me a good research culture means inclusivity, which means learning about each member of the research team and what works for them. Some people require adjustments due to religion, caring responsibilities, neurodiversity or many other reasons. I try to encourage my team to support each other and to recognise differences and how these can be used as strengths. I hope that my team feel able to speak to me if something is not working for them so that we can try to change it. I include the technical TEM staff as part of my group meetings as without them we would be completely in the dark.