Embedded Files
Recent Stories
Recent Stories
Tom and Matt in action - loading a sample
Feb 2025
ISIS Experiments!
Matt recently attended two beamline experiments down at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in Oxford using the POLARIS detector. These experiments were undertaken to investigate the local atomic structure of High Entropy Alloys (HEAs), with subsequent data processing using the pair distribution function (PDF) technique to determine these structures.
One of the experiments involved subjecting the HEA to cryo-genic temperatures (4-290K) while measurements were taken. This allows for the static, thermal and instrumental displacements to be determined and separated, as shown by previous work carried out within the group. With this information the local structure of the material can be reconstructed through small and large box models.
For the second experiment a different suite of HEAs were subjected to elevated temperatures, simulating the operational temperatures these materials might be subjected to in a nuclear fusion reactor. The data gathered is again going to be processed using the PDF technique to determine the local structure of these material. With the data collected at each temperature point allowing for the determination of how the materials structure changes over these temperature ranges, if at all.
17th September 2024
Applied powder diffraction course
On Tuesday 17th Septemeber we held the third iteration (yes that is a refinment pun) of the Appplied Powder diffraction course. We were joined by people from across UK academia and industry, from London to Swansea. It was a fantastic day working with the latest cohort of attendees! Many thanks to all those who made the day possible and such a success.
12th September 2024
September Travels - Superalloys
In early September Dr. Lewis Owen and Niels Schreiner attended the international Superalloys 2024 conference hosted at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, USA. While skiing was unfortunately not an option, the two enjoyed the conference as the sessions were filled with exciting talks about alloy development, advanced characterisation of stress effects and repairing and recycling Nickel based superalloys. It was a great opportunity to meet people from the community and make connections, particularly with colleagues also interested in short-range order! We were also joined by a large number of the IDEAs group, and it was a pleasure to here Professor Kathy Christofidou talk!
Photo: Sheffield Superalloys attendees at Falling Water
7th September 2024
September Travels - Copenhagen
It is always an absolute pleasure to talk to others working on local structural problems. On Friday 7th September, Lewis was invited to give a seminar at the University of Copenhagan by Associate Professor Kirsten Jensen. It was a great day - discussing local structural analysis and how small and large box modelling may be used to provied insight into complex materials systems. We look forward to welcoming Tobias Nielsen from the Danish group, as a visiting student in the coming months
26th July 2024
Group walk
Sometimes its good to get out of the lab... We had a lovely day hiking in the peaks including a windy visit to Mam Tor! Unfortunately not all the group were able to join. It was a great way to say farewell to summer student Luke Rogers who worked with us for six weeks as part of the university SURE scheme.
27th March 2024
Dr Lewis Owen awarded the Physical Crystallography Prize
Many congratulations to Group Leader, Dr Lewis Owen, who was awarded the Physical Crystallography Prize by the British Crystallographic Association. The prize is awarded Biennially to a person in the early stages of their career, working in the field of Physical Crystallography, whose research is expected to make a significant impact in the field. This year two awards were made by the prize committee - with the second award being given to Dr Hanna Böstrom from the University of Stockholm.
27th March 2024
Materials Unlocked Podcast Launched!
We are very excited to announce the launch of the Materials Unlocked podcast. The podcast is hosted and organised by Dr Lewis Owen in collaboration with the Henry Royce Institute. It will explore Material Science accross a range of different topics. Please share with friends and family!
Find more details and links on the Materials Unlocked page.
19th December 2023
Dr Lewis Owen - Keynote talk at SSCG Christmas Meeting
Group Leader, Dr Lewis Owen, was invited to present a keynote talk at the Solid-State Chemistry Group Christmas meeting 2023, this year held at the University of Edinburgh. His talk, entitled "What can we learn from local structure in metals" explored his work on the application of total scattering to metallic systems, and in particular what this can teach us about other chemical systems - highlighting the transferravbility of experimental and analytical techniques.
11th - 14th December 2023
MINES Conference 2023
Kavi Sharma attended his first international conference, Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES), in New Orleans, Louisiana in December 2023. On the morning of the last day (14th Thursday), he presented his work on ‘Investigating the Accuracy and Sensitivity of Convolutional Multiple Whole Profile (CMWP) on Zr Systems’. The talk was well attended and many approached after the presentation for further discussions and collaborations, especially in the realm of using the technique with ion implantation/neutron irradiated material. Kavi also managed to win a networking treasure hunt during the Early Career Networking Social where he won a hamper of goodies from industrial partners that had sponsored the conference.
The conference talks ranged from the evolution of material properties and fundamental radiation damage, to advanced materials and nuclear fuels to the overall fuel cycle. This provided a wide range of information that has not only helped contextualise the studies that Kavi has been doing so far but also provided avenues for further research. There were many industrial talks and exhibitions that gave insight into the current state of the nuclear industry and where the main focus of study is required to help push this field forward.
The days before and the evenings after the conference, Kavi was able to explore the city of New Orleans which is known for its extravagant social scenes, historic architecture and incredible cuisine, managing to eat beignets nearly everyday.
MiNES 2023 in New Orleans was an incredible experience. The conference provided great insights into the nuclear industry and its research, as well as a fantastic network of people to tap into. The chance to explore a vibrant city with such cultural significance topped off the trip!
7th December 2023
IOM3 Silver Medal
Many Congratulations to Dr Lewis Owen (Group leader) who was awarded the IOM3 Silver Medal in recognition of outstanding contribution to a field of interest within the materials, minerals or mining sector. Dr Owen collected the award at a Christmas dinner held at the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining (IOM3). It was a fantastic night for Sheffield and the Modern Alchemists, as Professor Iain Todd (co-supervisor of several group members) was also awarded the Gold Medal.
12-15 November 2023
HEA Conference 2023
In November 2023, Dr. Katerina Christofidou, Dr. Lewis Owen and Joshua Berry attended the 3rd world congress on high entropy alloys (HEA 2023) in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. The conference was a great experience and opportunity to present their work and learn from fellow researchers and professionals in the HEA field.
The group attended presentations discussing a host of topics from across the HEA field such as, new alloy design, computational modelling for HEAs and investigation of short range order within HEAs. These talks prompted lots of discussion and new ideas to consider in the context of their own research.
Josh presented his talk on the second day of the conference on the design of high hardness carbide reinforced HEAs. The talk was well received by those in attendance with lots of engaging and thought provoking questions and discussion on potential avenues to explore in the future. Some other highlights of the conference were the plenaries given by Dan Miracle on the 20 year history of the HEA field and Mitra Taheri on the recent progress in the characterization of high entropy and compositionally complex alloys.
Away from the conference they used the time to explore Pittsburgh and attend as many sporting events as possible. Seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Panthers college football team who all managed to win their games!
HEA 2023 was an excellent conference and Pittsburgh was an incredible city to visit. We look forward to sharing more of our groups work at our next conferences, TMS 2024 and HEA 2024
6-7th November 2023
ISIS Winter meeting
During the early days of November 2023, Dr. Lewis Owen, Benjamin Jolly, Jonah Shrive, Matthew Turton, Joe Smith and Niels Schreiner of the group attended the two day ISIS winter meeting. The conference was focused on local structure analysis through Neutron and X-ray diffraction, more specifically the application of pair distribution function analysis on material systems ranging from different ice allotropes to battery materials. The variety of material systems presented allowed group members to get a better understanding of varying techniques.
One thing that did stick out to all group members in attendance was the severe lack of pair distribution function studies on metallic systems, with Benjamin Jollys poster presentation on the local structure of NiCoCr being the only metallics focused poster, garnering significant interest from attendees.
3rd-13th October 2023
ISIS Neutron Training Course
Matt Turton attended the ISIS Neutron Training course in October 2023. Although Matt was only able to attend the first week of this course he gained valuable insight into the theory of diffraction and the practical implications through a series of lectures on the first day. The course also trained him on how to use the Mantid data processing and visualisation software through set-up and analysis of worked examples led by leading technicians and scientists in the field.
2nd September 2023
Applied Powder Diffraction Course
Yesterday group leader Dr Lewis Owen ran the first "Applied Powder Diffraction Course" through the Henry Royce Institute. The course was attend by forty people from across UK academia an industry. It was a fantastic day, featuring walkthroughs, tours, and lots of powder diffraction! We hope to run it again in the future - so watch this space!
20th August 2023
Alex and Ben host Nuffield Placement Students
In August, Alex and Ben had the privilege of welcoming Freya and Rahime, two A-Level students, into Sheffield University to undertake their Nuffield Research Placements. For three weeks, Alex and Ben guided the pair through a range of experimental, data analysis, Python coding, presentation, and report writing tasks, all of which were intended to both give the students a realistic insight into the world of scientific research, and provide a self-contained project from start to finish. The pair built a set of single-line scan test samples on the Laser Powder Bed Fusion machines that Alex uses for his research, and performed data analysis that will ultimately be of use in Alex's PhD. Both students performed fantastically throughout the placement, and will have promising university careers ahead.
24th April 2023
First-year students present at the AMSCDT mini-project Symposium
Last week our first-year Advanced Metallic Systems CDT students Niels, Martin and Ciaran presented at the CDT mini-project symposium, providing insight on the topics of structure analysis using XRD, CALPHAD-assisted alloy design and the evaluation of Al-Si coatings.
4th April 2023
Dr Lewis Owen delivers the Parkin Lecture
Congratulations to Dr Lewis Owen (group leader) who was invited to deliver the Parkin Lecture at the Bristish Crystallographic Association Spring Meeting in 2023. The Parkin award and lecture is awarded annually to a Young Crystallographer who has been recognised for outstanding contributions to promoting science, raising public awareness of science, teaching crystallography/science or showing originality in outreach and teaching activities.
Lewis' talk, entitled "All the world's a stage: Science communication, planning and performance" looked at lessons he has learned from performance in music and drama, and how these can be translated into good practice in science communication.
14th July 2022
PCG Intensive Summer School 2022
The Second PCG Intensive Summer in Physical Crystallography was held at Coseners House, Abingdon, from the 11th-14th July. The course was organised by Dr Lewis Owen (from the Modern Alcheme group), Dr Alex Gibbs and Dr Alex Browne. Students spent four days learning about space groups, symmetry, phonons, Landau theory, irreducible representations, and physical properties from our fantastic lecturing team - Dr Emma McCabe, Professor Andrew Goodwin, Dr Roger Johnson, Dr Fabio Orlandi and Dr Alex Gibbs. Particular highlights of the course included a packed poster session, a competetive quiz, physical demonstrations of symmetry operations and play-doh models of tensor representations!
8th April 2022
PCG Intensive Summer School 2022 website launched
The Physical Crystallography Group (PCG) of the British Crystallographic Association (BCA) is organising a summer school in Physical Crystallography. This will take place from the 11th-14th July 2022 at Cosener's House in Abingdon, UK. Dr Owen is part of the organising committee. The website has recently been launched. Please do check it out and share information about the course with people:
Website: https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/pcg-summer-school-2022/
15th March 2022
Dr Lewis Owen give seminar at the University of Maastricht
Dr Owen was invited to give a seminar at the Univeristy of Maastrict entitled "From simple alloys to high entropy materials - a chemists overview of metallurgy". There was fantastic engagement from the students in the session. Many thanks to the University of Maastricht for the invitation, and in particular to Dr Giuditta Perversi for hosting.
1st April 2023
Whiteways Primary School Fun-Science Club
Matt, alongside other members of the Materials Science and Engineering Society at the University of Sheffield, have been volunteering at the Whiteways Primary School after-school club over the past few weeks. The volunteers have been teaching the children about materials in engineering, raising awareness of materials science and also engaging the children with fun science experiments.
Matt had this to say after the experience, "The children at Whiteways made this after-school club amazing and so much fun to teach at each week. They got stuck into each session and we could see how much fun they were having, which made the experience even more enjoyable. We were lucky to interact with such amazing children and all of them have the capability to become incredible scientists. I hope that we helped them to see how interesting science can be!".
31st January 2022
Dr Owen awarded Joint Diamond Studentship
Dr Lewis Owen and Dr Phil Chater have been awarded a joint PhD Studentship between the University of Sheffield and the Diamond Light Source Ltd. The project will investigate "High Temperature total scattering studies of metallic systems". Applications for the studentship are now open. For more details on how to apply, please see our opportunities page.
12th August 2021
Dr Lewis Owen Awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship
We are pleased to announce that Dr Lewis Owen has been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Research Fellowship (2021-2026). This year celebrates 20 years of fellowships being awarded by the RAEng. The full press statement of the announcement may be found here.
Page updated
Report abuse