On Friday 30th September the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Lincoln hosted our first ever PGR symposium event. We invited alumni who are currently PGR students at other institutions to give a short (10-15 minute) presentation about their research projects alongside some of our own PhD students. 

The first speaker was Chris Dickens who is currently in his final year studying for a PhD in the School of Mathematics and Physics. His research involves using density functional theory to investigate the formation of individual point defects and defect clusters in ternary semiconductor compounds.

In his talk, Chris spoke in particular about substituting iron for indium in CuInS₂ and how this may introduce additional properties that are ideal for applications in photothermal energy conversion and photovoltaics. In the Q&A session he also explained how he chose the particular functional he used for his calculations.