News archive

13th December

TCM congratulates Ben Irwin on passing his PhD viva. Ben leaves us to work with a local company applying machine learning to drug design.

3rd December

TCM congratulates Alice Allen on passing her PhD viva. Alice remains in Cambridge, taking up a postdoc position with Prof Gábor Csányi in the Engineering Department.

29th November

Prof Mark Warner has just published Pre-University Mathematics for Sciences, the latest in a series of Sixth Form level text books aimed particularly at the Physical Sciences and available at isaacbooks.org. The series is sold at cost price, £1 per book, and over 120,000 copies have been sold.

15th November

TCM congratulates Dr Katarzyna Macieszczak on taking up the Henslow Research Fellowship at Selwyn College. She will remain in TCM as she continues her research on non-equilibrium quantum systems.

10th October

Dr Gareth Conduit has won a £1M InnovateUK award alongside Optibrium and the Medicines Discovery Catapult to use deep learning to improve the efficiency and productivity of drug discovery.

1st October

We congratulate Prof Ben Simons on the award of a Royal Society EP Abraham Research Professorship. He moves to DAMTP, and he will also establish an experimental lab. Ben has been central to activities in TCM and the Cavendish for many years, through his outstanding record of research across disciplines, and through his leadership, notably as Head of the TCM Group. We wish him every success in his new activities, and are pleased that he has chosen to remain co-affiliated with TCM.

30th September

As the new academic year starts TCM welcomes over a dozen new PhD students and two new postdocs, Drs Jan Behrends and Shovan Dutta. We wish all our new members a pleasant and productive time in the Group.

With the close of the 2017-18 academic year we express our best wishes to those who recently left TCM, moving to a variety of fulfilling positions in the UK and beyond.

11th September

Dr Gareth Conduit and startup Intellegens have licensed their deep learning code Alchemite™ to Optibrium for resale to clients in drug discovery. Optibrium CEO, Dr Matt Segall, who completed his PhD in TCM, comments "their deep learning technology, already proven in the field of materials design, has shown remarkable results when applied to challenging drug discovery".

10th September

Congratulations to Daniel Malz for passing his PhD viva. Daniel will shortly leave us to take up a postdoc postition at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics at Munich.

9th September

Daniel Rowlands passed his PhD viva and will take up a position in the Catholic Church.

8th September

We congratulate Dr Johannes Hofmann as he moves from a Research Fellowship at Caius to be a College Teaching Officer at Peterhouse, and from TCM to DAMTP.

20th August

Congratulations to Ed Tait for passing his PhD viva. Ed is now working for a local software company.

21st July

Congratulations to Graham Spink on graduating his PhD. We wish Graham well for his lectureship at the University of Chester.

19th July

Congratulations to Adam Smith on a successful PhD viva. We wish Adam well for the future: in September he leaves us for a postdoc position in Germany.

22nd June

Congratulations to Max McGinley on winning the Nature Reviews Physics prize for the best poster at the ICTP Conference on Quantum Dynamics of Disordered Interacting Systems in Trieste.

8th June

Congratulations to Bruno Loureiro on a successful PhD viva. We wish Bruno well for the future.

23rd May

Congratulations to Dr Bartomeu Monserrat on receiving a five-year Winton Fellowship for research on ab initio computer modelling of materials at room temperature, with applications including solar cells. Dr Monserrat will remain a member of TCM, and is TCM's fifth Winton Fellow.

4th May

Pavao Santak has been elected MCR President of Fitzwilliam College. Well done!

26th March

TCM congratulates Gabriel Constantinescu on a successful PhD viva. Gabriel now leaves us for the world of finance.

13th March

TCM is delighted that Bartomeu Monserrat won the Volker Heine Young Investigator award, presented at the German Physical Society's Spring Meeting.

14th February

TCM congratulates Angela Harper on receiving the American Physical Society's LeRoy Apker Award "for significant contributions to printed electronics research and outstanding leadership of the Society of Physics Students and Society of Women in STEM fields."

2nd February

TCM congratulates Joe Prentice on successfully defending his PhD thesis. Joe is now a postdoc at Imperial College.

23rd January

TCM congratulates Tom Whitehead on successfully defending his PhD thesis "Interacting Fermi Gases". Well done!

13th December

Cambridge Enterprise has provided funding for Intellegens, a spin-out company, co-founded by Gareth Conduit, which has developed proprietary algorithms to allow neural networks to be trained on incomplete data. The technique has already been applied to materials design and drug discovery, but is much more generally applicable.

8th December

Our congratulations to Dr Alex Chin who is moving to a permanent academic post at the CNRS, Paris, in the New Year.

8th December

Our congratulations to Dr Paulo Medeiros who is moving to a permanent post at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in the New Year.

7th December

TCM congratulates David Turban for passing his PhD viva.

3rd November

We congratulate Dr Michael Rutter on being asked to serve another one-year term as President of the Cambridge Branch of the UCU.

1st November

We welcome Dr Karolina Milowska who has just joined the Group as a postdoc working with Prof Mike Payne using linear scaling DFT. She previously worked in the Materials Science Department.

1st October

The new academic year sees TCM welcoming many new members. We extend a particular welcome to Dr Benjamin Béri, who joins us from Birmingham University to take up a joint lectureship between Physics and DAMTP. We also welcome Drs Matteo Brunelli and Tom Hiscock as postdocs, Profs David Bowler and Claudio Chamon as sabbatical visitors, and over a dozen new PhD students.

We wish all our new members a pleasant and productive time in the Group.

26th September

We are pleased to report that Edouard Hannezo will take up a faculty position at the Institute of Science and Technology near Vienna.

26th September

Philip Greulich has moved to a lectureship in the Mathematics Department of the University of Southampton.

26th September

Steffen Rulands has moved to start his own Research Group in the Max-Planck Institute for Complex System, Dresden.

14th September

TCM congratulates Nicholas Worth for passing his PhD viva. Nicholas is currently working for MathWorks.

11th September

TCM congratuates Gareth Conduit for winning the Society of Chemical Industry presentation award.

8th September

We are pleased that Andrew Morris has been appointed to a Lectureship at Birmingham University from October. He will remain in close contact with his many collaborators in TCM, and we expect him to be a frequent visitor.

6th September

We congratulate Sarah Morgan on being awarded a Springer Thesis prize for her PhD thesis. Sarah is now a Research Associate in Cambridge Neuroscience.

29th August

We congratulate Martin Mayo on his successful PhD viva.

22nd August

We are pleased that John Biggins has been appointed to a Lectureship in the Mechanics, Materials and Design Division of the Engineering Department, a position which he will take up in September. We are sure that John will retain strong links with TCM as he joins a Division already containing a TCM member, Prof Gábor Csányi.

1st August

We are pleased to report that Nigel Cooper has been selected as a 2017 Simons Investigator in Physics. The program provides "support for outstanding scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing creative new research directions, providing leadership to the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists." Quoting from the citation, "Nigel has shown how to design optical lattices for cold atoms that provide controllable laboratories for exploring the physics of interacting particles in the presence of gauge fields. He is also known for foundational works on the topological Kondo effect and on quantum oscillations in topological insulators."

13th June

Dr Knolle's work as part of an international team including experimentalists from Oak Ridge National Lab has led to the observation of magnetic Majorana fermion quasiparticles. Neutron scattering experiments at very low temperatures in ruthenium trichloride showed close agreement to the theoretical quantum spin liquid predictions.

The image shows a neutron (blue line) scattering from RuCl₃ producing a Majorana fermion (green wave) which disrupts the electron spins. Image credit Jill Hemman / ORNL press release.

31st May

TCM congratulates Joseph Nelson on passing his PhD viva. Joseph remains with us as a postdoc in Andrew Morris's group.

29th May

Drs Andrew Morris and Paulo Medeiros, with PhD student Jamie Wynn, have simulated the world's thinnest metallic nanowire, a 1D chain of tellurium inside a carbon nanotube. The computational simulations revealed a number of different configurations which the Te atoms take up within the nanotube as the tube's diameter varies in the range 0.7nm to 1.1nm, with only the thinnest tubes giving a linear chain rather than a helical twisted chain. Collaborators in the University of Warwick have shown that their predictions match the structures found experimentally.

18th May

TCM congratulates James Hamp on passing his PhD viva.

16th May

TCM congratulates Johannes Knolle on gaining a lectureship at Imperial College. He will take up this post at the start of the new academic year, and we are pleased that he intends to continue to collaborate closely with TCM.

15th May

TCM congratulates Yang Liu on winning a poster prize at the CCP9 Young Researchers event.

3rd May

TCM congratulates Salvatore Tesoro on passing his PhD viva.

15th March

TCM congratulates Lars Schonenberg on passing his PhD viva.

10th December

Image ©Nobel Media AB / Pi Frisk

TCM alumni Prof David Thouless (pictured) and Prof Duncan Haldane receive the Physics Nobel Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

7th December

TCM celebrates its annual Christmas party, complete with traditional pantomime written, starred, and directed by the new 1st-year PhD students. Many thanks to all the new students, especially Mark Johnson for writing the pantomime and Ezequiel Rodriguez Chiacchio for leading the organisation. Merry Christmas to all!

4th November

We are delighted that Dr Rutter has been re-elected to President of the UCU Cambridge branch.

26th October

TCM congratulates Aurelio Romero-Bermudez on passing his PhD viva.

6th October

TCM congratulates Sarah Morgan on passing her PhD viva.

4th October

TCM is proud and delighted to announce that two of its alumni shared in the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics. Prof. David J. Thouless moved from the Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Department in Cambridge to take up a lectureship in the Solid State Theory group (the early incarnation of TCM) from 1964-65 before moving to the University of Birmingham, where he remained on the faculty for many years. In 1980, David returned to TCM as a Royal Society Research Professor, moving soon after to the University of Washington, Seattle. Fortunately, he remained a frequent Summer visitor to the group. Prof. F. Duncan M. Haldane was a graduate student in TCM working under the supervision of another Nobel Laureate from the group, Prof. Philip Anderson, and receiving his PhD in 1978 before transferring to a post-doctoral position at the Institut Laue-Langevin. . Together with Cavendish graduate Prof. J. Michael Kosterlitz, they received the Nobel Prize "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter". Further information can be found at the Nobel website.

1st October

TCM starts the academic year by welcoming eleven new PhD students to its ranks. We are also delighted that Prof Emilio Artacho is now full-time with TCM.

The previous academic year saw our members gain lectureships elsewhere, as well as many other achievements. At this time we particularly congratulate Prof Gábor Csányi, a postdoc in TCM from 2001 to 2007, on becoming a Professor in Cambridge's Engineering Department.

29th August

We congratulate Thomas Bilitewski on passing his PhD viva. Thomas has a position in a Max Plank Institute.

19th August

We congratulate Sam Smith on passing his PhD viva. Sam leaves TCM for a job in London.

18th August

We congratulate Connie Hsueh on passing her MPhil viva. Connie is now a PhD student at Stanford University.

17th August

We congratulate Tom Price on passing his PhD viva. Tom recently started a postdoc position at Utrecht University.

13th July

We congratulate Edgar Engel on passing his PhD viva. Edgar will remain in TCM as a Trinity College Junior Research Fellow.

July

We congratulate Philip Greulich on his appointment to a Lectureship in Applied Mathematics at the University of Southampton.

15th April

Prof Sir David MacKay
1967-2016

With sadness we pass on the news that Prof. Sir David MacKay, FRS, Regius Professor of Engineering, visitor to TCM from 2013, has passed away after a battle with cancer. His enthusiasm, broad interest in science, and genius for communication made him a pleasure to know.

Many obituaries have been published, including in The Guardian, The Telegraph, and Bill Gates' blog.

18th March

We congratulate Gunnar Möller on his appointment to a Lectureship in theoretical condensed matter physics at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

26th February

We congratulate Jonathan Lloyd-Williams on passing his PhD viva. He will remain in TCM as a postdoc.

18th January

We congratulate Dr Danny Cole on being appointed to a lectureship in computational medicinal chemistry at Newcastle University. He will be much missed when he leaves in July.

12th January

We congratulate Edgar Engel on being offered a four year Junior Research Fellowship by Trinity College.

31st December

TCM congratulates Prof Sir David Mackay on receiving a knighthood in the Queen's New Year honours list for services to Scientific Advice in Government and Science Outreach.

23rd December

TCM celebrates Christmas two days early because all members now have complete web profiles. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year!

7th December

We congratulate Antoniya Aleksandrova on passing her PhD viva.

1st December

We congratulate Teresa Krieger on passing her PhD viva.

25th November

TCM is delighted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has commited £75 million to rebuild the Cavendish Laboratory.

9th November

We congratulate Jian-Hao Li on passing his PhD viva.

2nd November

We are delighted that Dr Rutter has been re-elected unopposed to President of the UCU Cambridge branch.

18th October

TCM member Graham Spink awarded a Lectureship in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Chester.

12th October

Prof Simons delivered the Larmor Lecture to the Cambridge Philosophical Society. His title was "The statistical physics of stem cell biology: Dicing with fate".

1st October

We congratulate Dr Hannezo on taking a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, and Dr Hofmann on taking a Research Fellowship at Caius College.

As the new academic year starts, TCM welcomes fifteen new PhD students and visiting students, and five new post docs, visitors and Fellows.

18th September

Prof. Mark Warner's" The Isaac Physics Project" shortlisted for The Times Higher Education Awards 2015 Outstanding Digital Innovation in Teaching or Research award.

15th to 18th September

TCM hosted a Onetep Masterclass from 15th to 18th September attended by thirty researchers from the UK & Europe.

20th July

Congratulations to Prof Simons on being awarded the Royal Society's Gabor Medal 2015 for his "work analysing stem cell lineages in development, tissue homeostasis and cancer, revolutionising understanding of stem cell behaviour in vivo".

13th July

The TCM 60th photo is now available to view and order online.

10th July

To mark 60 years of SST/TCM, we held a half-day symposium and a celebratory dinner.

10th July

TCM's new website goes live at 11:36. First bug report at 11:37.

9th July

Congratulations to Professor Chris Pickard who has won the 2015 Rayleigh Medal.

10th June

TCM's Claudio Castelnovo has been promoted to a Readership.

10th June

Watch TCM's John Biggins explain the chain fountain on BBC1's the One Show!

7th May

It is with great sadness that we report the death of former colleague, Professor Sir Sam Edwards. Professor Sir Sam Edwards was the Cavendish Professor of Physics and Chairman of the Science Research Council.

18th March

Congratulations to TCM alumnus Prof Mike Cates on being elected to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. Prior to moving to a chair in Edinburgh, Mike was a lecturer in TCM. Former holders of this chair include Profs Stephen Hawking, Paul Dirac, and Isaac Newton.

18th March

Congratulations to Prof Chris Pickard on being elected to the Sir Alan Cottrell Chair of Materials Science at Cambridge.

5th January

Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin is awarded an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship.

26th December

The chain fountain is demonstrated by Jimmy Carr on the Christmas Edition of QI.

26th November

Dr Michael Rutter has started his term as President of the UCU Cambridge branch.

1st October

Mr Bartomeu Monserrat receives a Henslow Research Fellowship.

30th September

The Rutherford Physics Partnership, lead by Prof. Mark Warner, launches an open online course for school physics students isaacphysics.org.

19th September

Dr Gareth Conduit has secured a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

18th August

Congratulations to Prof Mike Payne on winning the IoP's 2014 Swan medal and Prof Ben Simons on winning the IoP's Franklin medal.

3rd-10th August

Quantum Monte Carlo and the CASINO program IX, Vallico Sotto, Tuscany. Organised and hosted by Dr Towler.

26th July-2nd August

Quantum Monte Carlo in the Apuan Alps IX, Vallico Sotto, Tuscany. Organised and hosted by Dr Towler.

7th-11th July

International Conference on Highly Frustrated Magnetism 2014, Queens' College, Cambridge. Organised and hosted by Dr Castelnovo et al.

26th June

Dr John Biggins has been appointed to a 3-year University Lectureship.

1st January

Dr David Huggins is awarded a Medical Research Council Advanced Fellowship.