Professor Martin Foster

PhD, MSc, BEng

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professor of Energy Storage & Conversion

Martin Foster
Profile picture of Martin Foster
m.p.foster@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Professor Martin Foster
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Profile

I received BEng, MSc and PhD degrees from Sheffield in 1998, 2000 & 2003 respectively. I was appointed lecturer in 2003 and since this time undertaken research in power electronic energy conversion and battery management systems. In 2016 I was made Professor of Energy Storage and Conversion. My research interests span across the field of power electronic energy conversion, machine drives systems, thermal modelling & management, battery characterisation & health motoring and grid-connected energy storage.

Energy storage and applications form a large part of my research activities and I have involved in a number of EPSRC sponsored research projects including 鈥淔EVER: Future Electric Vehicle Energy networks supporting Renewables鈥 which aims to develop off-grid EV charging stations. Past projects include establishing the Willenhall Energy Storage Systems, a 2 MW, 1 MWh grid connected lithium titanate battery energy storage research facility and 鈥淭ransEnergy:Road to Rail Exchange鈥 which investigated the use of lineside electrical energy storage applications on railway networks. I am a founder member of Centre for Research in Electrical Energy Storage and Applications covering many aspects of battery energy storage from pack design to EV battery charging.

Power electronics research includes multilevel converters, gate drivers, magnetics design and thermal management. Significant EPSRC sponsored projects include 鈥淔PET: Framework for designing piezoelectric resonant power supplies鈥 in which developed mathematical models and design algorithms for piezoelectric devices, resonant power supplies and controllers for achieving soft-switching and voltage regulation; 鈥淭argeted waveform enhanced plasma microreactor: Engineering Chemistry at the Interface of Microbubbles鈥 developing high-voltage power supplies and controllers for plasma chemistry and 鈥淎 New Partnership in Offshore Wind: Siemens Wind Power Prosperity Partnership鈥 looking at improving wind power generation technologies.

I work closely with industry and have been involved in many Innovate UK sponsored project including EV power electronics with Nissan, power tool machines and drives, induction sealing for food products, architectural lighting.

Research interests
  • Resonant power supplies
  • Piezoelectric transformers (PTs)
  • Power electronics packaging and thermal management
  • Multilevel power converters
  • Battery management technologies
Publications

Journal articles

  • O鈥橩eeffe H, Foster MP & Davidson JN (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 53(10), 3105-3112.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2025) . IET Power Electronics, 18(1).
  • O鈥橩eeffe H, Rehman FJ, Holmes TD, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Zimmerman WBJ (2025) . Ozone: Science & Engineering, 47(4), 423-431.
  • Naghibi J, Mohsenzade S, Mehran K & Foster MP (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 40(12), 18178-18188.
  • Qin Y, Li G-J, Zhu ZQ, Foster MP, Stone DA, Jia CJ & McKeever P (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 11(2), 5302-5311.
  • Riedemann J, Zhu Z-Q, Stone DA, Foster MP, Greenough J, Takemoto K, Ivanovic D & Bateman B (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 11(1), 1106-1116.
  • Khazali A, Al-Wreikat Y, Fraser EJ, Sharkh SM, Cruden AJ, Naderi M, Smith MJ, Palmer D, Gladwin DT, Foster MP , Ballantyne EEF et al (2024) . Energies, 17(15).
  • Qin Y, Li G-J, Zhu ZQ, Foster M, Stone D, Jia C & McKeever P (2024) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 39(7), 8709-8720.
  • Naderi M, Palmer D, Smith MJ, Ballantyne EEF, Stone DA, Foster MP, Gladwin DT, Khazali A, Al-Wreikat Y, Cruden A & Fraser E (2024) . Energies, 17(4).
  • Yang Z, Forrester J, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 38(12), 15645-15658.
  • Forrester J, Davidson J & Foster MP (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 38(10), 12874-12885.
  • Forrester J, Davidson JN & Foster MP () Inductorless step-up piezoelectric resonator (SUPR) converter: a cyclic-mode analysis. IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics.

Book chapters

  • Naderi M, Ballantyne E, Munoz MN, Hind G, Stone D, Gladwin D & Foster M (2025) In Wang X (Ed.), Sustainable and Emerging Energy Technology: Challenges, Opportunities, and Perspectives (pp. 133-154). Springer Nature Switzerland

Conference proceedings

  • O鈥橩eeffe H, Foster MP & Davidson JN (2024) . IET Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2024(3) (pp 576-581). Nottingham, United Kingdom, 10 June 2025 - 10 June 2025.
  • Naderi M, Palmer D, Munoz MN, Al-Wreikat Y, Smith M, Fraser E, Ballantyne EEF, Stone DA, Gladwin DT & Foster MP (2024) . Pcim Europe Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2024-June (pp 949-957)
  • Forrester J, Davidson J & Foster M (2023) . 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) Proceedings (pp 195-201). Nashville, Tennessee. USA, 29 October 2023 - 29 October 2023.
  • Ballantyne E, Stincescu T, Stone D, Zhao R & Foster M (2023) Predicting Energy Use of an Electric Vehicle using Vehicle Dashcam Telemetry Data. World Conference on Transport Research - WCTR 2023 Montreal, Canada, 17 July 2023 - 21 July 2023.
  • Forrester J, Li L, Davidson J, Foster M, Stone D, Reaney I & Sinclair D (2022) . IMAPSource Proceedings 2022 (HiTEN), Vol. 2022(HiTEN) (pp 125-130). Oxford, 18 July 2022 - 18 July 2022.
Teaching activities
  • EEE225 - Analogue and Digital Electronics
  • EEE307 - Power Electronics
Professional activities and memberships
  • IET

Links

Electrical Machines and Power      EPSRC Prosperity Partnership: a new partnership in Offshore Wind