Dr Zubera Iqbal is a Chemistry Graduate who completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham (co-sponsored by Imerys Ltd). Her PhD title was “Recovery of Lithium from kaolin mining waste material”. On completion she successfully developed a novel bio-leaching process to recovery the lithium, and was awarded funding by Innovate UK to develop a pilot scale production plant.
Zubera spent a few years in industry between a start-up and then at the Ministry of Defence, working as a Weapons Scientist before returning back to Academia in September 2018. She is currently a Faraday Institution Research Fellow, working on the Recycling and Re-use project. She is specialising in recycling critical metals from spent electric vehicle batteries, using biological recovery processes, in order to develop an environmentally friendly process which can facilitate a circular economy.
Zubera is also a RSC member, STEM ambassador and holds an Associate Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy.
