Biography

Having completed an MSci in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Bristol in 2007, I left to work as a statistical analyst for an oil services company.  The following year, I returned to academic pursuits,  starting a DPhil (PhD) in plasma physics with Gianluca Gregori at the University of Oxford.  During my DPhil, I studied model systems in plasma physics using 'molecular dynamics' (computer) simulations.  Most of my work was done in collaboration with Jerome Daligault at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  My thesis, entitled 'Molecular dynamics simulations of the equilibrium dynamics non-ideal plasmas', was completed in early 2012.  

As of June 2012, I am a Research Fellow in the Soft Condensed matter group at the University of Surrey.  I am researching the thermal epitaxial nucleation of crystals with Richard Sear.  While something of a change from my DPhil studies, my work utilises the both the philosophy and techniques common to computer simulation of molecules, familiar from my work on plasmas.  I am supported by EPSRC grant number EP/J006106/1, 'Computer Simulation of the Thermal Epitaxial Nucleation of Crystals'.

Research Interests

My research has been in the general area of computational statistical mechanics.  For my DPhil (PhD), I studied the equilibrium dynamics of two simple systems that are ubiquitous in plasma physics.  This involved a detailed comparison of the results of molecular dynamics simulations with analytical models of the physical properties of these systems. The full story is in my DPhil thesis, available below.

In my current role, I am studying nucleation of crystal phases.  In this case, nucleation is the first stage of crystallisation, that is, it is the formation of a microscopic crystallite in a metastable fluid.  As an activated process (one that involves overcoming an energy barrier), nucleation is challenging to study in computer simulations.  This has led to the development of advanced simulation methods.  Until now, these methods have mainly been used to study homogeneous nucleation.  While these studies have substantially advanced our understanding of homogeneous nucleation, in most cases of physical interest nucleation is not homogeneous, it occurs on inhomogeneities such as surfaces that the fluid is in contact with.  This is known as heterogeneous nucleation.  In my research, I use computational techniques to study this phenomenon.  For an overview of my work, see the poster I presented at the winter school "Simulating activated processes in Chemistry and Physics":

Publications