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
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Dr Chandan Singh

Chandan is a Research Fellow in the group. He leads computational research on the group’s Leverhulme Trust-funded project, working in collaboration with Prof Andrew Morris (School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham) and Dr Ross Stewart (ISIS Neutron and Muon Source).

Chandan completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr Mukul Kabir at IISER Pune, India. In his thesis, he modelled the tip-induced superconductivity at the interfaces of different bulk materials, such as CuFeSb, hcp-Zr and ZrSiS, with first-principles calculations, working in collaboration with experimentalists at IISER Mohali, India. He also collaborated with a theory group at Linkoping University, Sweden to explain the absence of phonon-mediated superconductivity in V-doped ZrB₂. He modelled the two-dimensional magnetism in the CrI₃ monolayers with an anisotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian. He found that experimentally achievable hole doping in these materials improved the Curie temperature and led toward the realization of room-temperature ferromagnetism. During his PhD, he also started the modelling of topological superconductivity in NbSe₂/CrI₃ van der Waals heterostructure using tight-binding Hamiltonian under BdG formalism. He, along with his colleagues at IISER Pune and Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, demonstrated that the presence of a magnetic field induces a nodal phase in the bulk material, and along the armchair edge of NbSe₂, a Majorana flat band emerges at zero energy.

In his current position as a Research Fellow, he will be expanding on these research areas, specifically exploring the influence of correlated disorders on complex magnetic structures in diverse quantum materials.

• c.k.singh@bham.ac.uk
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Dr Jem Pitcairn

Jem is a Research Fellow in the group funded by the EPSRC.

Jem undertook a 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. For his Masters’ project, he studied the stress control of magnetic domain motion in ferromagnetic nano-wires with Prof Dan Allwood. Now at Birmingham, Jem is exploring new low-dimensional frustrated magnetic materials as part of the group’s EPSRC New Investigator Award.

• j.pitcairn@bham.ac.uk
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Tristan Dolling

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

Tristan graduated from the University of Brighton with a First Class MChem degree in 2020. For his final-year project, Tristan worked with Dr Ian Gass to design a new synthetic route for the synthesis of bidentate pyridine-triazole ligands. These ligands were then complexed with Fe^II to discover potential applications in the switchable surfactant field. Now at Birmingham, Tristan is exploring synthetic strategies to obtain new low-dimensional frustrated magnetic materials as part of the group’s EPSRC New Investigator Award.

• TND012@student.bham.ac.uk
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Amie Troath

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

Amie completed their MSci in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham with First Class honours. For their final year project with Dr Dwaipayan Charkrabarti, Amie worked on the simulation of active and passive asymmetric colloidal dumbbell systems to work towards 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 1st-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

Aimee LeBrun

Aimee is an MSci student in the group.

Aimee is a final-year MSci student studying at the University of Birmingham since 2020. In summer 2023, she carried out an internship with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, which involved many CIF deposits and scientific edits to the Cambridge Structural Database. Aimee is working on her MSci research project within the Clark group. Her research investigates the nature of crystallographic strain in quantum materials and its effect on their structure-property behaviour.

Ethan Ward

Ethan is an MSci student in the group. 

Ethan has been studying Chemistry at the University of Birmingham since 2020. He took a range of different third-year modules and research projects, which involved both inorganic synthesis and analytical techniques. Ethan’s MSci project within the Clark group is to use Rietveld analysis of high-resolution synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction data to understand synthesis-structure-property relationships in quantum materials.

Associate Group Members

Dr Otto Mustonen

Otto is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Birmingham and affiliated with the Clark group.

Otto received his MSc in Chemistry with Distinction from Aalto University, Finland, in 2013 having worked on half-metallic ferromagnets. Otto stayed at Aalto University for his PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Maarit Karppinen. In his thesis, Otto investigated magnetism in strongly correlated oxides and discovered the first quantum spin liquid candidate on the square lattice. After finishing his PhD in 2018, Otto moved to the United Kingdom to join Dr Eddie Cussen’s group at the University of Sheffield. During his postdoc, Otto investigated novel magnetic materials and magnetic states of matter. He led the collaboration with ISIS Neutron and Muon Source securing over 30 days of beamtime. Otto joined the University of Birmingham in 2021 as a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow. In his fellowship, Otto will design and characterise new quantum critical materials. Otto is mentored by Lucy and contributes to the activities of the Clark group.

• o.mustonen@bham.ac.uk
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Rob Tarver

Rob is a final year MSci student working with Otto on the synthesis of new spin liquid candidates based on the honeycomb structure. In his project, Rob is also modelling diffuse magnetic neutron scattering data collected on the D7 instrument at the ILL using the SPINVERT software.

Former Group Members