Hosni is from Cairo where he studied Chemistry at Suez Canal University. After graduating Hosni went to work at the Petroleum Research Institute, which is also in Cairo. Getting a little fed up of the sunshine, Hosni thought that Newcastle would be the perfect antidote. He had never been outside of Egypt before he went to Newcastle. This is fair enough, given that Cairo was the first place I went to on holiday as a student. Even in an oil rich region, there is a good understanding that other sources of energy are needed, and Hosni was very keen to learn about some of these. With a Scholarship from the British Council, he was keen on performing research in an area related to fuel cells. The expert in Newcastle is Professor Mohamed Mamlouk, who was to later ask me to help co-supervise Hosni. Hosni arrived in September 2019, and I became part of the team in 2021. In March 2024, Hosni submitted his thesis entitled "Exploring the electrochemical behaviour of protic ionic liquids for intermediate temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells: from electrolytes to membranes".