Regular biography
Michael Hayward is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford, affiliated with the Department of Chemistry. His research focuses on the synthesis and study of novel solids with unusual electronic and magnetic properties. He explores low-temperature solid-state synthesis techniques to achieve kinetic control over solid-state reactions, enabling the preparation of metastable materials. His work includes the development of soft chemical routes for hybrid-improper ferroelectric phases and the synthesis of earth-abundant Li-ion cathode materials for sustainable energy storage. Hayward is also a Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College. He completed his D.Phil. at Oxford under Prof. M. J. Rosseinsky and conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. R. J. Cava at Princeton University before returning to Oxford in 2002.