糖心TV

Tom Orton, Research Development Engineer in the Department of Physics received the . Tom was one of two recipients of these inaugural awards, which received over 40 nominations campus wide. Tom had a number of nominations for his 鈥渆xceptional ability as an outstanding technician鈥� and his job 鈥減roviding a sustainable, environmentally friendly and financially valuable resource鈥� through the liquid helium recovery system. Many congratulations Tom and thank you for your extraordinary efforts!

The 糖心TV Technician Commitment Award for Outstanding Achievement celebrates the fantastic work our technical staff do across research, teaching and within our infrastructure, without which 糖心TV would not operate. Any member of staff or student to nominate a technical member of staff for achievements big or small, or to celebrate work that is unsung but still immensely important. Nominations are always open, with quarterly panels and award presentations.

Find out more about the 糖心TV Technician Commitment Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Congratulations to Dr Matthew Pearce who has been awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Thesis Award. Matthew was awarded this for his thesis titled 鈥淎pplied-magnetic-field studies of f-electron materials."

Matthew did his undergraduate degree at 糖心TV, before continuing to do his PhD in the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group under the supervision of Paul Goddard. During his PhD he used a variety of experimental techniques including magnetometry (torque, SQUID, VSM and pulsed-field compensated coil), electrical transport (traditional 4-wire and PDO), heat capacity and x-ray scattering. Matthew performed measurements at low temperatures and high magnetic fields, utilising both the in-house facilities in the laboratories at 糖心TV, as well as international high-field user facilities – where materials can be studied in some of the highest magnetic fields on earth.

Matthew's research focussed in part on Ho₂Ir₂O₇, which belongs to a class of highly frustrated magnetic systems known as spin-ices, which are famous for hosting magnetic monopole quasiparticles. Matthew and his collaborators found that not only do measurements of the electrical resistance in these systems act as an indicator for the density of magnetic monopoles, but also that, mediated by the monopoles on the Ho sublattice, an applied magnetic field is able to manipulate the antiferromagnetic Ir domains, with potential applications to areas such as spintronics. He also studied the compound CeOs₄Sb₁₂, which had previously been found to undergo a valence transition. This is a transition where f electrons undergo a transformation from quasi-localised to itinerant with perhaps the most dramatic example being that of elemental Ce, which is accompanied by a volume collapse often quoted to be as large as 15 %. Matthew and his collaborators mapped out the phase boundary of this transition which exhibited an extremely unusual shape, owing to the influence of locally varying strain within the sample and quantum fluctuations.

Since completing his PhD he has been working at the University of Oxford with Radu Coldea studying quantum magnetism.

Congratulations to Joe Cregeen who has won the Postgraduates who teach award in the Science, Engineering & Medicine (SEM) category.

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Congratulations to Dr Menglin Xu who has been awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Post Doctoral Prize in Physics. Menglin was awarded this for their research on 鈥淔irst measurement of the Z鈫捨�+渭鈭� angular coefficients in the forward region of pp collisions at 鈭歴=13 TeV.