Gemma Howard

Research Scientist

Gemma is a research scientist here at the Health and Safety Executive. She mainly focuses on projects relating to upcoming renewable energy sources including the use of lithium-ion batteries for electrical vehicles. This work involves subjecting batteries to different abuse tests to gain a better understanding of their failure mechanisms, contributing to safer designs for consumers.

She has developed a new test rig allowing batteries to be subjected to mechanical failure inside a pressure vessel, increasing test capability, and is currently working on a new project, MultHyFuel, to understand the potential consequences of a hydrogen dispenser failure within a petrol station.

Research Interests

• Lithium-ion Batteries
• Hydrogen as a future fuel source

Previous Projects

• LIBRIS: UK-wide lithium-ion battery safety project working with a consortium who share a similar interest
• OPSS: Project to understand the behaviour of potentially unsafe batteries which may by purchased by the public for vaping devices

Notable Achievements

• Presenter at the Hazards 31 conference focusing on her latest research into the failure mechanism of pouch cells
• Working towards writing her first paper on pouch cell failure mechanisms for publication
• PFdSc in Bioscience as part of Level 5 Apprenticeship with AstraZeneca