Invited Speakers

Dr Bill Allison, University of Cambridge, UK

Experimental studies of the dynamical properties of surfaces make up Bill Allison's primary research interest. He is particularly concerned with understanding the behaviour of atoms and molecules over time-scales and distances where semi-classical behaviour begins to emerge from the quantum world. He began his career at University College London and in the University of Florida working on excited states, ionisation and reactions during gas phase collisions. His expertise in molecular beam methods led to appointments at the European Space and Technology Centre (ESTEC), doing some of the first measurements of single-phonon scattering of molecules at surfaces, and then at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, where he has developed new methods of helium scattering from surface systems. With many talented co-workers he developed the Helium spin-Echo (HeSE) method, which has proved one of the most effective ways to study surface systems on pico-second time-scales. In addition he has contributed to the ongoing develpment of a new type of surface-microscopy based on a probe of thermal energy helium atoms.

Professor Giovanni Costantini, University of Warwick, UK

Development of novel and efficient approaches for combining molecular building blocks into desired functional architectures at well-defined surfaces and the exploration of their fundamental interactions and properties. We employ a range of deposition methods (from organic molecular beam deposition to electrospray soft landing) and state of the art characterisation techniques including scanning probe microscopy and electronic spectroscopy. Main research topics: metal-organic coordination structures; chiral recognition; biomolecule-surface interaction; growth and electronic properties of organic material for molecular electronics and photovoltaics.

Dr Neil Curson, University College London, UK

Dr Neil Curson is the UCL Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Characterisation of Materials, a Senior Lecturer at the London Centre for Nanotechnology and a visiting Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey. His research interests are centred around understanding and controlling the behaviour of atoms and molecules at surfaces and the development and deployment of new scanning probe lithography techniques, towards fabrication of nanoscale electronic devices and atomic-scale components for quantum information processing. He was a key member of the team at the University of New South Wales that pioneered atomically-controlled placement of individual P dopants into silicon and the electrical contacting of buried dopant nanostructures. Dr Curson’s experimental expertise lies in the determination of surface properties (via scanning probe microscopy, scattering and spectroscopy techniques) and the fabrication of nanoscale devices (via electron beam lithography and cleanroom processing). He recently completed his term as the chair of the Thin Films and Surfaces Group of the Institute of Physics.

Professor Wendy Flavell, University of Manchester, UK

Wendy Flavell is Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester. She works on the electronic structure and surface reactivity of semiconductor nanocrystals, oxides and photovoltaics. Her research uses world synchrotron sources, most recently for work aimed at developing light-harvesting quantum dots and inorganic heterojunctions for next-generation solar cells.

Professor Georg Held, University of Reading, UK

Prof Held's research interests focus on fundamental aspects of heterogeneous catalysis and the development of methods for accurate characterization of adsorbed molecules. One key activity of the research group is the precise determination of surface geometries by diffraction techniques (LEED, SXRD). Another, increasingly important field of research involves studies of the chemical nature of model catalysts and adsorbed molecules by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) Spectroscopy. The experiments investigate the adsorption and reactions of small bio-relevant molecules (e.g. amino acids) and solvents, like water, on metal and oxide surfaces and the geometries and electronic structures of surfaces alloys and thin oxide films. Prof Held has been awarded major grants from EPSRC and the European Commission (network grants "MONET" and "SMALL" funded by the Marie Curie programme) and regular beamtime awards at UK, European and US synchrotron facilities

Dr Stephen Jenkins, University of Cambridge, UK

Stephen Jenkins leads the Surface Science Group in the Department of Chemistry, directing research that explores the interaction of industrially and environmentally important molecules with reactive metals. Having gained his BSc and PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Exeter (1991 and 1995 respectively) Stephen held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at Cambridge (2001-09) prior to his appointment as a University Lecturer in 2009. He is currently Treasurer of the Royal Society of Chemistry Solid Surfaces Group and Rooms Tutor at St Edmund's College.

Professor Rob Jones, University of Nottingham , UK

Rob Jones started off as a Chemist at the University of East Anglia and Cambridge, started to change into a Physicist at the Cavendish Labs and Warwick University, and then returned back to Chemistry at Nottingham University where he is now Professor of Surface Science. He has carried out surface structural studies using synchrotron radiation for decades and is currently using the Diamond Synchrotron to develop a new technique, Variable Period X-ray Standing Wave analysis. Over the past ten years in Nottingham he has been developing Liquid Surface Science, where surface sensitive techniques are applied to ionic liquid surfaces in ultra-high vacuum.

Dr Robert Lindsay, University of Manchester, UK

Rob is a Reader in Corrosion Science and Engineering at the School of Materials. Prior to taking up his current position in 2005 he had appointments at a number of other leading research institutions, including the Fritz-Haber-Institut (Berlin), Cambridge University, and the CSIC Institute of Materials (ICMAB) in Barcelona. He has more than 25 years research experience, with approximately 80 published articles, including several reviews.

Currently, Rob is a director of the Materials for Demanding Environments (M4DE) CDT, which provides 4 year funded PhDs concerned with understanding a wide range of materials performance issues (http://www.m4de.manchester.ac.uk).

Dr Katie Moore, University of Manchester, UK

Dr Katie L Moore joined the University of Manchester in October 2014 as a Research Fellow in Materials Characterisation by NanoSIMS. She moved from the University of Oxford where she held an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship working on NanoSIMS imaging of trace elements in crops. Prior to this Katie graduated with a D.Phil from the University of Oxford in Materials Science in 2011 and a MEng in Materials Science in 2007 also from University of Oxford.

Katie has been working in the field of NanoSIMS analysis for the past 8 years. Her research has been primarily to use the NanoSIMS to investigate trace element uptake in crops, such as arsenic uptake by rice, but has also used the NanoSIMS on a range of other materials. Recent work has included an investigation of oxidation and hydrogen pick up mechanisms in zirconium using isotopic tracers and the NanoSIMS.

Professor Philip Moriarty, University of Nottingham

Philip Moriarty is a Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham. His research interests span a number of topical themes in nanometre scale science with a particular current focus on single atom/molecule manipulation using scanning probes. His ORCID profile has a full list of publications and grant awards: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9926-9004

Moriarty has a keen interest in outreach activities, primary and secondary education, and both science and higher education funding policy. In addition to participating in a number of research council-funded public engagement projects (including Giants of the Infinitesimal), he has been interviewed, and written, for The Independent, The Guardian, Times Higher Education, BBC Radio 4, Die Zeit, and The Economist amongst others. He is also a regular contributor to the Sixty Symbols YouTube project, which was awarded the IOP’s Kelvin prize in 2016 for “for innovative and effective promotion of the public understanding of physics.” Moriarty maintained a personal blog and YouTube channel for a number of years, but, as described in this post for the LSE Impact blog, came to his senses a couple of years ago: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/05/02/rules-of-engagement-seven-lessons-from-communicating-above-and-below-the-line/

In his spare time Moriarty enjoys exploring the deep and fundamental relationships between (quantum) physics, maths and heavy metal music: https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Uncertainty-Principle-Goes-11/dp/1944648526 . He does not share his infamous namesake's fascination with the binomial theorem.

Dr Chris Nicklin, Diamond Light Source Ltd

Chris Nicklin is the Principal Beamline Scientist for beamline I07, which is used to study the structure and morphology of surfaces and buried interfaces using X-ray scattering techniques. Prior to joining Diamond, Chris was a lecturer at the University of Leicester where his research focused on the growth and structure determination of alloy layers and understanding the dynamics of self-assembling nanocrystals. Chris has used both X-ray diffraction techniques and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) to understand these processes at different length scales (atomic – 10 nanometres).

Chris' interest in surface physics began with his PhD research, which involved measuring valence changes in rare earth elements as their local environment was changed at the surface. He also used resonant photoemission to determine the decay channels in these elements before becoming interested in UHV in-situ surface x-ray diffraction to determine the structure of these and other surfaces with high accuracy. Chris' research expanded to include the application of X-ray scattering methods to determine the long range order of crystallites formed by self-assembling nanoparticles.

Dr Rachel Oliver, University of Cambridge, UK

Dr Rachel Oliver is a Reader in Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on the characterisation and exploitation of nanoscale in structures in GaN-based materials. The broad aim of her work is to achieve improved performance in GaN-based optoelectronic devices and to develop and implement novel device concepts.

Professor Stephan Rauschenbach, University of Oxford, UK

Stephan is a Tutorial Fellow in Physical Chemistry at Wadham College and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry.

His research interests lie in preparative mass spectrometry, a method of handling even the largest of molecules to make them accessible at the individual molecule level. This is useful as a tool for atomically resolved single molecule imaging as well as for the fabrication of functional molecular coatings mimicking biological concepts.

Having studied physics in Augsburg, Zurich and Munich, after a short stay in industry in Japan, Stephan started his research in preparative mass spectrometry for surface science at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart (Germany), working on his PhD. After completing his dissertation at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) he became group leader at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart and has been teaching in the Department of Physics at the University of Konstanz.

Dr Daniele Seli, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

Dr Daniele Selli is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Milano-Bicocca. He studied Theoretical and Computational Chemistry at the Universtiy of Perugia and received a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry at the Dresden University of Technology. After fellowships at the Cardiff University and the University of North Texas, he joint the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz for his first post-doc period. Then, he moved to the Universtiy of Milano-Bicocca for his second post-doc in the ERC project on Smart Bioinorganic Hybrids for Nanomedicine.

His present research is focused on the static and dynamic simulation of extended hybrid systems involving low dimensional and nanostructured materials in the field of catalysis and biomedicine.

Professor Geoff Thornton, University College London, UK

Geoff Thornton is a Professor of Physical Chemistry. He is also a Principal Investigator in the London Centre for Nanotechnology. His group consists of 4 postdocs, 6 PhD students and a Laboratory Manager. Research focuses on energy related studies of oxide surfaces. He has worked at UCL since 2003, moving from Manchester University where he was a Chemistry Professor. His DPhil is from Oxford, with a post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr Alex Walton, University of Manchester, UK

Alex receieved an MSci in Physics from Durham University in 2005. He went on to do a PhD in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds. After one postdoctoral position within the same group, in 2012 he took up a postdoctoral position within the Nanocatalysis group at Aarhus University, Denmark.

In 2015 he took his present post of Research Fellow within the school of Chemistry, University of Manchester.

Professor Phil Woodruff, University of Warwick, UK

Phil Woodruff is one of the country’s leading experimental surface physicists. He is noted for his imaginative development of techniques for the investigation of surfaces, especially for the quantitative determination of surface structure, and with particular emphasis on synchrotron radiation. His ground breaking innovations are taken up by other groups around the world and he himself has applied them to characterise surfaces and their atomic and molecular adsorbates with great precision.

Careers workshop speakers

Including:

• Dr Hayley Brown (PlasmaQuest Ltd.)
• Prof Paul Warren (NSG Group)
• Dr Margaret Harris (Physics World, IOP Publishing)
• Dr Matthew Acres (Kratos Analytical Ltd)