Dr Lynette Keeney. Image: Tyndall National Institute
Dr Lynette Keeney credits her chemist parents for nurturing her childhood interest in how things are made. She is now a materials scientist specialising in multiferroics.
Late last year, Dr Lynette Keeney was awarded funding worth nearly €1m for her deep-tech research project investigating new materials for the production of energy-efficient data storage and devices.
Her work is particularly important given that as a society we are generating more and more data every year. Where and how can we store it all? And can we use new materials to help facilitate this storage?
That’s a question that Keeney’s work is grappling with. She is based at the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork (UCC). Her funding boost was awarded as part of the prestigious Irish Research Council (IRC) Advanced Laureate Awards in December.
‘The growth of the digital universe continues to outpace the growth in storage capacity’
“As developments in technology continue to flourish, our reliance on data is also increasing,” Keeney explained. “Data is critical in all aspects of our daily lives, influencing how we shop, how we bank, how we are educated and how we are entertained. It is a vital element in the smooth operation of infrastructure such as road networks, power grids, public transportation and hospitals.
“Crucial to these advances is the ability to store and make readily available this data to all of us worldwide; however, the growth of the digital universe (images, videos, streaming, social media feeds) continues to outpace the growth in storage capacity. New and disruptive data storage technologies are required to keep up with the ever-increasing consumer and corporate demands for data.”
Enter people like Keeney. Her research focuses on how to leverage multiferroic materials for data storage. Multiferroics are unique materials capable of intertwining ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties, providing novel ways to manipulate data and store information.
Keeney is particularly interested in ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials. The former “are known for their ability to exhibit spontaneous electric polarisation that can be switched between different states under an applied electric field,” she explained.
Everyday uses
“Ferroelectric materials are used in smart cards, ticketless transportation and contactless electronic money systems because they remember their electrical polarisation state, even when a device is powered off.”
“Ferromagnets, which are used in everyone’s hard-disk drives, remember their magnetic polarisation state” when a device is turned off, also.
In recent years, academics such as Keeney have been investigating how multiferroic materials can be used to advance computing, storage and sensing technology thanks to these properties. It’s a mix-and-match of material capabilities, so to speak.
Keeney told us that recent breakthrough discoveries in ferroelectric materials research – including those by her own team – have been met with great excitement in the physics and electronics worlds.
But there is still a lot of work to be done to harness the potential of these materials for “ultra-high density, energy-efficient memory devices,” she added.
Scientists have struggled to make ‘magnetoelectric’ materials – or materials that have both magnetic and electric properties working together – at room temperature. This is important because it would allow for easier use in everyday situations. But even if scientists managed to make magnetoelectric materials, there is no guarantee they will work.
Keeney’s “ultimate goal” is to be able to control and tailor some multiferroic materials’ features working at room temperature. “This will provide a platform to explore relationships between magnetic and polar textures within a topologically protected structure,” she explained.
Collaboration and recruitment
Realising this aim will involve Keeney and her team combining interdisciplinary inquiries. She is excited about the potential for collaboration her work will bring. She will work with two London-based academics, each with different specialisms – theory and electron microscopy respectively. She told us that the team is currently recruiting for several junior academic positions at Tyndall, so those interested can join the cutting-edge physics, electronics and chemical research.
Keeney’s own formal qualifications are in chemistry, although collaboration with other experts throughout her career has enabled her to learn more about the fundamental physics behind material properties and expand her knowledge in other areas such as mathematics and engineering.
Her inquisitive nature was nurtured
She credits her early love of chemistry to her parents. “When I reflect on my professional and academic background, I consider myself lucky that both of my parents are chemists.” Her mother was a chemistry lecturer at Atlantic Technological University (formerly IT Sligo), while her father worked as an industrial chemist and quality engineer in Abbott.
“Both my parents inspired my initial interest in chemistry and encouraged my inquisitive nature as a child. I loved activities where I could learn what things are made up of, how things work or why things work as they do,” she recalled. Keeney spoke more about her the childhood projects she used to do with her mother when we featured her as part of our Science Uncovered series a few years ago.
‘When I reflect on my professional and academic background, I consider myself lucky that both of my parents are chemists’
Her parents’ support was bolstered by that of her teachers and mentors throughout her education, first at Sligo’s Mercy College and then at the University of Galway. It took her a little while to realise that academia was where she belonged. She briefly did a stint as a research scientist in Canada before moving back to Ireland to pursue a career in research.
‘I love the creativity materials chemistry allows’
“Researching in the physical sciences particularly excites me and I love the creativity that materials chemistry allows – you get to create or discover something brand new that has never been made before,” she said, praising her current mentors at Tyndall for the encouragement they provide her.
She doesn’t regret her pivot to industry in Canada. “I feel that my experience of working in industry definitely has contributed positively to my research career. Although it may feel like taking a risk to go from research to industry, and then back to research again, I would encourage people not to be afraid to experience different opportunities and travel as much as possible. What you learn from different environments can strengthen your overall skillset and ultimately help you with your career path and finding where your passions lie.”
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