Dr Kirsty McKay

Over the past 5 years, Kirsty has been restructuring and strengthening her research portfolio to utilise her knowledge of low-temperature plasma chemistry. In particular, she has created a strong relationship with UKAEA in the area of divertor detachment plasma chemistry in a fusion reactor. Fusion is a key to achieving Net Zero.
The second area of her research focuses on plasma agriculture and how atmospheric pressure plasmas can be used to enhance growth and increase yield of high-value crops, while reducing the need for pesticides and fertilisers, and decreasing water consumption. This is important for Net Zero and Food Security.
Her third area of research focuses on defence technologies, bringing together her current work with DSTL and the work currently being developed alongside the Skills and Training Hub; this is a very industry-facing aspect of her research and will help to create next-generation solutions to today’s problems. STEM areas of research have significant issues in terms of recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, something that is critical to the success of any discipline and meeting the demand for highly skilled people in the UK’s STEM sectors.
Kirsty is the EDI lead for the Fusion CDT and the S&T Hub in Energy Transfer Technologies. Through these roles, she aims to engage with the wider community to address the issues faced around equality and inclusivity in the workplace, to create a diverse and welcoming academic and industrial environment.

Areas of expertise: Low-temperature plasma chemistry, atmospheric pressure plasma discharges, plasma polymerisation and thin-film surface coatings, mass spectrometry, plasma diagnostics (FTIR, OES, IV characterisation), data processing (PCA, multi-dimensional data reduction), computational (Fortran90, C, Matlab). Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.