Shalini Divya

Divya was born and raised in India, and gained a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Delhi University and a master's degree in chemistry at the Birla Institute of Technology in Mesra, India. She moved to New Zealand to undertake doctoral research, completing a PhD at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington in 2021, under the supervision of Thomas Nann (University of Newcastle, Australia) and Jim Johnston. Divya worked on selecting a suitable cathode element for non-aqueous aluminium-ion batteries. Divya co-founded company TasmanIon, of which she is also chief executive, with Thomas Nann in 2022. The company aims to commercialise the aluminium-ion battery technology developed by Divya. The batteries are intended to be more sustainable than lithium batteries as the components are more abundant, and are also easier to recycle. Aluminium ion batteries also do not need cobalt, avoiding the ethical problems of cobalt mining, and are safer as there is no risk of explosion.

In 2021 Divya was awarded a KiwiNet Breakthrough Innovator award. TasmanIon was shortlisted for the inaugural Le Zero Innovation Award. TasmanIon was also selected as one of three participants in Wellington City Council-supported Creative HQ Climate Response Accelerator programme.