News



Selected to attend the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

24 March 2024

I am incredibly honored to have been amongst only 650 scientists worldwide to be selected to attend this year’s 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in June. See the press release at the FHI website for more information about the Meeting and the yearly conference in Lindau.







Organising the upcoming CECAM Flagship workshop on Machine Learning of First Principles Observables

14 January 2024

Organising this year’s CECAM Flagship workshop on Machine Learning of First Principles Observables. To submit an abstract for a talk or poster please visit https://www.cecam.org/workshop-details/1322







Organised the PostDoc Day Berlin

29 January 2023

Part of the organising team of PostDoc Day Berlin 2023! We had an exciting day of speakers, flash talks, and workshops at this year’s event. For more information, and to check out the next year’s PostDoc Day, visit https://www.mdc-berlin.de/postdoc-day#t-home







Published in the Royal Society's Chemical Science Journal

29 January 2023

Pubilshed an article on “Modelling amorphous materials via a joint solid-state NMR and X-ray absorption spectroscopy and DFT approach: application to alumina” available Open Access at https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2023/sc/d2sc04035b







Awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship

30 October 2022

Awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship to fund my Postdoctoral work at the Fritz-Haber Institut in Berlin.







Started as a Post Doct at the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin

14 September 2022

Started as a Post Doc working with Dr. Christoph Scheurer at the Fritz Haber Institute.







Successfully Passed my PhD Viva!

30 August 2022

Finished my thesis after a Viva examination from Prof. Judith Driscoll, Cambridge and Prof. Jonathan Yates, Oxford.







Awarded the 2021 CoSeC Impact Award

02 May 2021

Given a 3rd place prize in the 2021 CoSeC Impact Award for my work using the CASTEP code as part of my PhD. Details of the award can be found here







Won the Blondie Boat Race by 7 lengths!

25 April 2021

Took place in the 2021 reserve races against Oxford to win the 2021 Blondie Boat Race. (I am the coxswain and yes the one being thrown into the river)







CUSPE Policy Challenge Talk

09 October 2020

As part of the 2021 Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange Program, I recorded a talk on our Cambridgeshire Business Decarbonisation Fund, which was sent out to local businesses.







Invited Talk at Bath University

29 June 2020

Was invited to give a talk on my most recent paper Computational Investigation of Copper Phosphides as Conversion Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries in the group of Kit McColl at the University of Bath







Beam Time at the Diamond Light Source

22 October 2019

Stayed at Diamond Light Source for 72 hours taking measurements as part of a proposal on ALD deposited alumina coatings. The measurements were performed at the i09: Surface and Interface Structural Analysis Beam.







Gave a talk on modelling alumina using AIMD at the ESDG Meeting

08 October 2019

Gave a talk titled “Amorphous Al2O3 from atomic layer deposition” on my project on ALD deposited alumina coatings at the ESDG meeting.







Succesfully Defended my First Year Report!

10 September 2019

Now officially a PhD student in Physics at the Unviersity of Cambridge







Poster Presentation at the MMM Hub Conference in London

02 September 2019

Presented a poster on my work on Cu-P anode materials at the MMM Hub Conference







Attended Physics By the Lake Condensed Matter Theory Summer School

14 August 2019

Attended a two week summer program on the fundamentals of condensed matter theory. Details of this program can be found on their website.







Awarded 1.2M CPUh on HPCMidlands+ For Silica Alumina Project

30 June 2019

Through the internal call for compute time on HPC Midlands+ the high performance computer in the Unviversity of Birmingham, we were awarded 6 months of computing time.







Presented a talk at the Germany Physical Society (DPG) Spring Meeting in Regensburg, Germany

01 April 2019

In the Frontiers of Electronic Structure Theory Session, I presented on my recent work predicting XAS Spectra for battery interfaces. The experiments for this project are being done in the Grey Group in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. The talk can be found here







Presented a talk at the weekly ESDG meeting in TCM

06 November 2018

Presented my MPhil research in a 20 minute presentation at the Electronic Structure Discussion Group in TCM. The talk gave an overview of crystal structure prediction, density-functional theory, and its applications to low-cost Na-ion battery materials. Details of the talk can be found here.







First Place Poster Prize at the CASTEP Users Meeting Birmingham, UK

22 August 2018

The prize winning poster can be found here. This work builds on my Masters project on metal phosphide anodes.







Won a Second Place Poster Prize at the CASTEP Workshop in Oxford, UK

22 August 2018

I won 2nd place in the poster competition at the 2018 CASTEP Workshop for my poster on “Ab Initio predictions of metal phosphiide anode materials”







Poster Presentation at CASTEP Workshop18

19 August 2018

Presented a poster on “Ab initio predictions of metal phosphide anode materials” at the 2018 CASTEP Workshop, and attended the tutorials, lectures, and entire workshop throughout the week.







Attended CCP9 Conference in York, UK

17 July 2018

Attended the 2018 CCP9 Young Researchers Event and Community Meeting held in York, UK.







Attended CSaP Conference on Science and Policy at the Royal Society in London

27 June 2018

Attended the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) conference sponsored by the Churchill Scholarship. This was a one day event held in London to discuss the role of science, especially machine learning and AI in policy decisions.

More information can be found at the CSaP website here







Presented at Churchill College's Conference on Everything

27 April 2018

Gave a talk titled “Discovering Novel Materials for Energy Storage Using Computational Techniques” to a collection of Churchill MCR (Graduate Students), Fellows, and Faculty at the 2018 Conference on Everything held at Churchill College, Cambridge.

The growing need for sustainable and efficient energy storage devices demands research into rechargeable batteries, specifically lithium-ion batteries, which currently dominate the battery research field due to their high energy density. However, this technology at the present state contains two main limitations: first, the dwindling abundance of Li which has led to steep increases in cost, and second by the efficiency of the electrode materials used. Sodium-ion batteries have thus received increased attention in recent years, given the relatively high abundance of Na. Given that Na+ ions have a larger radius than Li+, attention must be given to the choice of suitable anode materials, which allow for adequate sodiaition. To address both issues, an automated computational approach is employed which predicts novel anode materials with higher capacities from first principles calculations.

The ab initio Random Structure Searching code (AIRSS) is used to search for the initial anode structures, and a ternary hull is constructed between these compounds and either Li or Na. The structures which lie close to the hull, and thus are most energetically favorable are then further studied as a means of understanding the chemical transformations undergone during lithiation or sodiation. AIRSS can then be used to predict the structures formed both at the interface between these anodes and an electrolyte, and within the grain boundaries of the bulk materials. From this highthroughput method we can understand the chemical pathways of ion conduction in novel battery materials and calculate energetic barriers at the anode-electrolyte interface.







Poster Presentation at the CAM/IES AIP Horizons Conference on Interfaces in Energy Materials

09 April 2018

Presented a poster titled “Ab Initio Prediction of Metal Phosphide Anode Materials for Lithium and Beyond Lithium Batteries” at the AIP Horizons conference held at Trinity College in Cambridge, UK. This poster detailed my work on ab initio calculations for transition metal phosphides as high capacity anodes for Li+ and Na+-ion batteries done during my MPhil year at Cambridge.

Abstract:

Graphite, the most commonly employed Li-ion battery anode, is inherently limited in its performance due to its maximal capacity of 372 mAh/g; thus there exists a space for understanding higher capacity active materials to increase the overall battery energy density and improve performance [1]. Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) in general are an attractive class of materials to study within the field of battery anodes given that phosphorus has a high theoretical capacity of 2596 mAh/g, and the added benefit of transition metals to improve conduction and structural stability of these compounds. Here we employ a crystal structure prediction method to analyze and study two families of TMPs, copper and iron. Copper has been widely studied as a battery anode material, and Iron is an earth-abundant element which has recently been employed in Na-ion batteries, making it an attractive choice to lower the cost of beyond-lithium batteries







Awarded 2018-2022 Winton Scholarship for the Physics of Sustainability to fund a PhD in Physics at Cambridge

29 March 2018

I am honored to have been awarded a Winton Scholarship for the Physics of Sustainability in order to pursue a PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge in the Theory of Condensed Matter Group. I will be studying materials for energy storage applications, using computational techniques.

More information on the Winton Scholarship can be found here







Awarded 2018-2022 Gates Cambridge Scholarship for PhD in Physics

29 March 2018

I am honored to have been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship in order to pursue a PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge in the Theory of Condensed Matter Group. I will be studying materials for energy storage applications, using computational techniques.

More information on the Gates Cambridge Scholarship can be found here and my Gates Cambridge Scholars Profile can be found here.







Gave an invited talk for the LeRoy Apker Award at the 2018 APS March Meeting

05 March 2018

At the 2018 APS March Meeting in Los Angeles, CA, I was invited to give a talk on “Laser printed flexible electronics” as the winner of the 2018 LeRoy Apker Award. The abstract of the talk is given here and a description of my award here.







Gave talk at APS March Meeting on Ab Initio Prediction of Metal Phosphide Anode Materials for Li and Beyond Li Batteries

04 March 2018

Gave a talk titled “Ab Initio Prediction of Metal Phosphide Anode Materials for Li and Beyond Li Batteries” at the 2018 American Physical Society Meeting in Los Angeles, CA. The full abstract can be found here.