Dr Lucy Clark

Lucy is an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham and our team leader.

Lucy obtained a First Class MChem Chemistry with Mathematics degree from the University of St Andrews in 2010. She was then granted a Principal’s Career Development PhD Scholarship from the University of Edinburgh, which allowed her to pursue her post-graduate studies in the School of Chemistry under the supervision of Prof J. Paul Attfield FRS. In 2013, she was awarded her PhD for her thesis entitled “Synthesis and Study of Frustrated Oxide and Mixed Anion Materials.” A major focus of her thesis work comprised a study of correlated anion disorder in oxynitride materials using powder neutron diffraction.

After her time in Edinburgh, Lucy went on to a post-doctoral position with Prof Bruce D. Gaulin in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. There she learnt to apply the technique of inelastic neutron scattering to the study of frustrated magnets. She subsequently returned to the UK and to the University of St Andrews to work on the development of ionothermal and solvothermal synthetic chemistry for the discovery of new advanced materials.

Before taking up her current position in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham in 2020, Lucy held a Materials Innovation Factory lectureship at the University of Liverpool from 2017.

l.m.clark@bham.ac.uk

Google Scholar

Dr Shruti Chakravarty

Shruti is a Research Fellow in the group funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Shruti completed her PhD exploring structure-property relationships in 4d-transition metal oxides at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, under Prof. Sunil Nair. She has synthesised various double-, triple- and quadruple-perovskites and discovered correlations between the spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom in these systems. She has expertise in the design of low-temperature instrumentation and built a dielectric susceptometer as part of her doctoral work. Before joining IISER Pune as an integrated MS-PhD student in 2015, she graduated from the University of Delhi with a Bachelor of Science (Hons).

At Birmingham, Shruti explores new ways to synthesise frustrated quantum magnets to understand the role played by correlated disorder in determining their ground states.

s.chakravarty@bham.ac.uk

Google Scholar

Dr Jem Pitcairn

Jem is a Research Fellow in the group funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Jem completed his PhD in low-dimensional metal-organic magnets at the University of Nottingham under Dr Matthew Cliffe, focusing on air-sensitive synthesis and neutron scattering studies of linker-bridged metal-chloride chains. Before his PhD, Jem worked as a research associate in the Materials for Applied Surface Science team at Illumina. Jem graduated from the University of Sheffield with an MEng in Materials Science in 2017. Now at Birmingham, Jem is exploring the role of correlated disorder in quantum magnets as part of our Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant.

j.pitcairn@bham.ac.uk

Google Scholar

Amie Troath

Amie is a final-year PhD student in the group.

Amie completed their MSci in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham with First Class honours. Amie worked with Dr Dwaipayan Charkrabarti on the simulation of asymmetric colloidal dumbbell systems and the hierarchical self-organisation of these systems. Amie’s research explores the topological properties of quantum magnets, as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Topological Design.

axt687@student.bham.ac.uk

Lizzie Evans

Lizzie is a 2nd-year PhD student in the group.

Lizzie graduated with a First Class MSci in Chemistry in 2023. She spent her 3rd year studying abroad at Dalhousie University in Atlantic Canada. For her MSci project, Lizzie worked in the Clark group exploring optical and magnetic anisotropies in metal-organic frameworks. Lizzie’s PhD is funded by the EPSRC CDT in Topological Design and is co-supervised by Prof Giovanni Costanini.

EJE902@student.bham.ac.uk

Jacob Brownlee

Jacob is a 1st-year PhD student in the group.

His project is co-funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council as part of the ISIS Facility Development & Utilisation programme. He is exploring sustainable synthetic pathways to quantum materials. Alongside this, Jacob is developing novel neutron polarisation analysis capabilities on the LET beamline at ISIS with his co-supervisor, Dr Ross Stewart.

Before commencing his PhD in the group, Jacob worked as an X-ray diffraction research scientist at Johnson Matthey. He completed his MSci in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. His MSci project was completed with Dr. Matthew Cliffe. There, Jacob worked on solving the ground-state magnetic structures from an extensive diffuse neutron diffraction study focused on solid solutions of first-row transition metal thiocyanate frameworks. 

Former Group Members