News Jan 2019: Applications are now invited for a (long-term) Research Fellow and multiple fully-funded PhD students to join my group delivering on the ERC project ANTI-ATOM: please contact me for informal enquiries:
Research Fellow advertisement (closing date 18 Feb 2019).
PhD positions: Project 1: many-body theory for positron interactions with molecules and condensed matter. Project 2: Many-body theory for positron-atom interactions .
Research interests and expertise
Published computer programs
1. SIMLA: simulating particle dynamics in intense laser and other electromagnetic fields via classical and quantum electrodynamics, co-authored with Dr Chris Harvey, Seagate Technologies: Program files hosted on CPC library (search "SIMLA"). Link to manual.
2. ANTICOOL: simulating positron cooling and annihilation in atomic gases:
Fortran package for ab initio calculation of lifetime spectra, time-varying annihilation rates and positron annihilation gamma spectra in atomic gases via Monte Carlo simulation based on quantum mechanical cross sections.
Program files here.
Key publications Brief CV Positron, positronium and antimatter physics, and atomic many-body theory: Intense laser-plasma physics (strong-field quantum electrodynamics) 2019 : Reader in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and Principal Investigator for the ERC-STG project ANTI-ATOM.
Selected prizes, awards and research funding
2018: Queen's University Belfast Vice-Chancellor's Research Prize. Lecturing experience Talks at international conferences and academic institutions Commissions of trust Previous:
I am also a developer of a large (unpublished) suite of state-of-the-art programs for atomic many-body theory implemented for positron and positronium interactions with atoms (including B-spline basis implementation), and of Prof Jeremy Hutson FRS group's MOLSCAT program for the quantum mechanical (coupled channel) solution of the nonreactive molecular scattering problem.
2015 -- 2019: EPSRC UK Postdoctoral Research Fellow (independent) in Theoretical Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2013 -- 2015: Research associate in the ultracold theory group of Jeremy Hutson FRS, Durham Chemistry Department and Joint Quantum Centre, and Junior Research Fellow of Hatfield College,
Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom.
2012 -- 2013: Research Fellow, Centre for Plasma Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2010: Visiting Fellow, Harvard University Physics Department, based at the Institute of Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical
Physics (ITAMP), Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
2008 -- 2011: PhD, Theoretical Atomic Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2004 -- 2008: 1st class MPhys University of Oxford, as Theobald Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, United Kingdom.
1997 -- 2004: Belfast Royal Academy Grammar School, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2018: European Research Council Starting Grant (EUR1.32M).
2018: EPSRC UK Early-Career Fellowship (~£900k, declined).
2017: "ICPEAC Sheldon Datz Prize", for outstanding young scientist in atomic physics (selected by the international committee of the International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions), awarded in Sheldon Datz plenary session at ICPEAC XXX, Cairns, Australia
  2015: EPSRC UK Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical Physics (£260k).
  2015: Leverhulme Trust Early-Career Fellowship (declined).
2013 -- 2015: (The first) Junior Research Fellowship in the Sciences, Hatfield College, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom.
2010: Institute of Physics Rosse medal for graduate research 2010 (sole recipient).
2010: Visiting Fellowship, Harvard University, USA, based at ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
2005 -- 2008: Theobald Scholarship, Balliol College, University of Oxford (elected by the Fellows, for academic excellence in Physics).
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