Joe Pitfield (above) and Conor Price both passed their PhD viva’s this November after 3+ years (extensions due to COVID).
Joe’s PhD is on the exciting topic of interface structure prediction and our RAFFLE structure prediction method, which I will discuss in a future blog post. Its a been a real pleasure working with Joe on this and I am pleased with the outcome of his PhD. Joe has since taken a position at the Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus and continues to work on interface structure prediction with the Hammer group. Joe has also worked on battery materials and photocatalysts.
Conor has worked on many different projects during his PhD and has shown real adaptability. His main focus has been on how Transition Metal Dichalogenides can be used as battery materials. Using DFT, he has explored both single layer and superlattice structures and shown how the voltage and capacity for these systems changes depending on the stoichiometric make up. His leading article on this is available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d3ta00940h
Finally, I would be remiss to not mention the two of them worked together with Edward Baker on showing the potential of ScS2 as a cathode material, with gravimetric capacities comparable with NMC or the ilk. Personally, I think this is an outstanding result and I hope the community looks at this and examines this exciting cathode material. This article is available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d2cp05055b
