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 fourth speaker was Charlotte Vale, who is currently in her second year studying for a PhD in the Leverhulme Quantum Biology DTC at the University of Surrey. Her research is on non-trivial quantum effects in biological systems.

In her talk, Charlotte started quite generally by talking about what she means by “non-trivial” quantum effects and gave some examples including the topic of her talk – long-lived coherence in biomolecules. Charlotte then proceeded to explain the motivation for her work on the long-lived spin dynamics in tuberculosis drug Isoniazid, the mechanism of which is still not understood.

She finished by mentioning various avenues her research could go down in the future, including looking at molecular dynamics simulations and concepts related to ergodicity in so-called ‘spin chains’.

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 third speaker was Sorcha Hulme who is currently in her final year studying for a PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at the University of Liverpool. Her research is on the use of nanomaterials in sensing applications.

In her talk, Sorcha started quite generally by talking about the various kinds of nanomaterials and their wide-ranging applications. She then proceeded to focus on her own area of interest – the functionalisation of nanoparticles with specific aptamers that bind to ‘marker’ molecules associated with the diagnosis of cancers. She finished by mentioning the role of non-uniformity in applications of nanomaterials.

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 second speaker was Harry Finch who is currently in his final year studying for a PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at the University of Liverpool. His research is on so-called high-k materials – materials with a high dielectric constant relative to SiO₂ – for gate dielectrics in devices such as field effect transistors.

In his talk, Harry started by explaining how high k materials may enable the further miniaturisation of devices. He then talked about how he has used x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the high-k material Sc₂O₃, in particular to examine the interface between Sc₂O₃ and GaN or SiC. In the Q&A session Harry also discussed the scalability of the various sputtering methods used to deposit these technologically important materials.

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.

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 speakers were:

Chris Dickens (University of Lincoln)

Harry Finch (University of Liverpool)

Sorcha Hulme (University of Liverpool)

Charlotte Vale (University of Surrey)

Nick von Jeinsen (University of Cambridge)

Reece Jones (NPL & University of Strathclyde)

George Bell (University of Lincoln)

Alek Radic (University of Cambridge)

The event was a great success, with some fantastic presentations and some exciting conversations about the future. Over the coming days we will be writing a short blog post about each of the speakers’ talks. Watch this space….!

On Friday 30th September we invited our alumni students to return to Lincoln for our first ever Maths and Physics Alumni Networking Event.

This was a fantastic opportunity for our graduates to show us what they’ve been up to since graduating, and for our current undergraduates to be inspired by what their predecessors have gone on to achieve.

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the event! It was really great to see some familiar faces and to hear how well everyone is doing.

Some of the alumni even stayed to take part in our Welcome Week quiz!

Our 2022 UROS (undergraduate research opportunity scheme) projects are well underway. Our students are making good use of our drawing walls, and it looks like someone might be running an important simulation….