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 Sam Ivko

Sam is a postdoctoral research associate within the group.

Sam completed his MChem in Chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 2016, where he spent his final year investigating rate enhancement of organometallic reactions in ionic liquid media under the supervision of Dr Anthony Haynes. After graduating, he took up a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) PhD studentship in the same group at Sheffield. His project involved the synthesis, post-synthetic modification and thorough characterisation of metal-organic framework and polymer materials as supports for catalysis, for which he was awarded his PhD in 2020. Alongside his doctoral research, Sam delivered extensive teaching to undergraduate students in Sheffield for which he was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) status in 2019. He is now applying his expertise in solvothermal synthesis and solid-state characterisation to his postdoctoral research at the University of Birmingham, in the pursuit of two-dimensional S = 1/2 kagome magnets.

Sam currently manages our group Twitter account @ClarkGroupBham

• s.a.ivko@bham.ac.uk
• LinkedIn
• Twitter @snivko

Dr Aly Abdeldaim

Aly finished his PhD in the group this year and is staying for a few months to complete some papers.

Aly joined the group from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, where he completed his MSc in Materials Chemistry with Distinction in 2018. During his time at Chalmers, Aly explored the synthesis and characterisation of a family of anhydrous alums as candidate spin liquids. Aly was the recipient of an ISIS PhD Facility Development Studentship in which he was searching for new metal-organic framework solids for quantum materials applications. He is co-supervised by Dr Gøran Nilsen from the Excitations and Polarised Neutrons Group at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility.

• AXA1699@student.bham.ac.uk
• Twitter @AlyAbdeldaim
• Google Scholar

Jennifer Graham

Jennifer is a final year PhD student in the group.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Liverpool with a First Class MPhys degree in Physics in 2019. For her final year project, Jennifer was part of the Clark Group and won the departmental prize for best MPhys project for her work on the synthesis of rare-earth realisations of the Kitaev quantum spin liquid ground state. Jennifer decided to stay in the group for her PhD, in which she is studying the relationship between chemical and magnetic disorder and frustration in quantum materials. Her PhD is co-funded by the Institue Laue-Langevin (ILL) Graduate School in Grenoble, France. She is co-supervised by Dr Andrew Wildes, the instrument scientist on the ILL’s polarised diffuse D7 diffractometer.

In addition to her research, Jennifer has also been involved in outreach since her undergraduate days, and for her contribution to promoting Physics through public engagement, Jennifer was awarded the Ann Marks Memorial Prize by the IOP in 2018.

Jennifer currently manages our group website.

• grahamj@ill.fr
• Google Scholar

Tristan Dolling

Tristan is a 3rd-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
• LinkedIn
• Twitter @TristanDolling

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 an MSci student in the group.

Lizzie has been studying at the University of Birmingham since 2019. She spent her third year studying abroad at Dalhousie University in Atlantic Canada, where she took a broad selection of advanced chemistry classes, ranging from analytical chemistry to sustainable energy. Now back in Birmingham for her final year, Lizzie is working on her MSci project within the Clark group. In her research project, she will be exploring optical and magnetic anisotropies in metal-organic frameworks.

• E: EJE902@student.bham.ac.uk

Jess Silvester

Jess is an MSci student in the group.

Jess is a final-year MSci student in the Clark group at the University of Birmingham. Last year, Jess undertook an industrial placement year in the zeolite department of Johnson Matthey, tuning the location of aluminium ions in the ZSM-5 framework. This year her project will be focused on the synthesis of two-dimensional kagome magnets.

• JXS1344@student.bham.ac.uk

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
• Twitter @OHJMustonen
• Google Scholar

Former Group Members