Dr Dhammika Widanalage, one of the biggest names in UK battery academia, will transition from his position at the University of Warwick to the role of Head of Battery Modelling at Breathe.
Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”), the provider of physics-based battery management software, has announced the appointment of one of the UK’s leading battery experts, Dr Dhammika Widanalage, as its Head of Battery Modelling.
Dhammika joins Breathe at an exciting stage of its growth to lead its battery modelling strategy and development. He will draw on his collaborative research experience working with OEMs such as JLR, Aston Martin, McLaren and VARTA to develop battery models to enhance battery system performance for a range of industry applications across automotive and consumer electronics.
Dr Ian Campbell, CEO and Co-founder of Breathe, comments, “We are extremely proud to be adding someone of Dhammika’s pedigree to our team. He is well known in the UK and internationally as one of the leading thinkers in battery technology and has a track record of working with leading OEMs to translate his research into successful business applications. His extensive knowledge and experience in battery modelling will be pivotal to helping us enhance the technology and products we are building at Breathe.”
With an academic career spanning over a decade, Dhammika holds the position of Reader at the University of Warwick, with a prior visiting position at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. He completed his PhD in system identification at Warwick University and a postdoctoral position at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, where he developed frequency domain identification methods for industrial applications and in battery modelling.
Dhammika has published more than 60 papers in the areas of battery modelling, system identification and machine learning for battery applications. He also received the WMG Early Career Researcher of the Year award (2016).
“To move from academia to a commercial business was not a straight-forward decision, however I was excited by the challenges and problems that Breathe is addressing. This includes technologically challenging issues which will impact the drive to electrification. I look forward to using my modelling and simulation research experience from Warwick to contribute to Breathe’s future development.” says Dhammika.
He adds, “the people and working culture at Breathe also stand out. Since joining, I have seen a team where everyone is valued and can meaningfully contribute to the success of the company and its customers, which has only reinforced my decision to join.”
His recruitment marks the latest of several key hires, which includes the recent appointment of Veronique Lafargue, former Global Head of Content Strategy at Google and VP of Marketing at STRIVR, as Breathe’s Chief Marketing Officer. The company continues to expand its team to support the delivery of its software to even more OEMs in the automotive and consumer electronics sectors.