Dr Katrina Morgan

Katrina joined the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in October 2023. Katrina is developing flexible energy harvesting devices using novel and 2-dimensional materials, creating commercially compatible autonomous energy platforms. Katrina is building up her own research group "Morgan MADE (Materials and Devices for Energy)" and is leading a £220k EPSRC New Horizons grant, Smart Cloth. Previous to this role, Katrina was a Photonics Development and Integration Engineer for the AIM Photonics Programme run by the Research Foundation for State University New York (SUNY), using 300 mm foundry to scale up materials for next generation photonic devices at a manufacturing scale. Whilst working in the states, Katrina was a Visiting Fellow to the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton and held Associate Editor position for the IET journal Circuits, Devices and Systems. Prior to her time in USA, Katrina was a Senior Research Fellow in 2016 to 2022 after obtaining a CASE Award PhD in the electronics and computer science department, in the area of radiation effects and reliability of dielectrics in CMOS transistors and resistive memories. Continuing in the field of thin films and nanofabrication, Katrina’s research utilised advanced chalcogenide 2D and thin films for a wide variety of opto and electronic applications. Prior to her time at Southampton, Katrina received her MPhys in Physics from the University of Sussex in 2011. 

Katrina is an advocate for gender equality and inclusion, chairing the Southampton university wide Women in STEM+ committee, WiSET+, founding her departments first Early Career Researcher Forum, and being pivotol in setting up ORC's (Southampton) first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and NYCREATES (USA) first Women's network.  

Katrina has worked in impact and science communication, presenting her research in Westminster on numerous occasions. She was selected to present her research at the Houses of Parliament at SET for Britain, was invited to represent The Royal Society at the Voice of the Future in Parliament and was selected to take part in The Royal Society Pairing Scheme in Westminster, where she was paired with a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence and debated with Members of Parliament on how science is used to influence policy.

Prizes

• University of New South Wales (UNSW) Women in Engineering Visiting Fund (2019)
• Top 100 Physics Scientific Reports Paper 2019 (2020)
• Outreach Engagement Award (2016)