Congratulations to CDT student Ned Taylor, who has just finished his PhD. His thesis was titled ‘Ab Initio Exploration of Interface Structures and Their Properties’.
Ned published five papers during his time as part of the CDT and presented at national and international conferences. He was also involved with the Metabuddies scheme- an outreach scheme led by our PGRs, who visit local schools to engage their students in physics and engineering.
Ned looks back on the experience of undertaking his PhD:
It is finally over. I have written my thesis, had my viva, completed my corrections and have been awarded my doctorate. Yesterday I had a final trek up to the Uni as a PhD student to pick up a copy of my thesis that I had printed for prosperity. It is weird to think that it is all over now; below are some of thoughts on my time as a postgraduate researcher.
A PhD is a unique experience for everyone. For me, it was a wonderful time and, although sometimes stressful, it was always worth it. I have relished in the opportunity to conduct research and the freedom to choose my path of study. I have learnt more about the materials that surround us than I had ever expected. The work was demanding, but that was never an issue as the topics were always fascinating. It was amazing going to conferences and have people attend talks to listen to the research that I conducted. Writing scientific papers was often rather tedious, but the outcome was definitely worth it and really helped in the process of writing my thesis.
I have learnt a lot throughout my PhD. In addition to the science, the courses offered by the CDT were, overall, very rewarding and useful. I learnt how to present, how to understand and communicate with others in a team, how to manage projects, how to put myself forward and highlight my skills. I feel that these skills will be vital for progressing beyond the PhD.
The community of PhD students in the CDT offered the chance to forge good friendships. Going on this journey with other PhD students helped me to relax and enjoy the experience. I am also extremely grateful for the support and guidance that my supervisors, Steve Hepplestone and Eros Mariani, have given me throughout the past four years.
As became a theme in the Hepplestone research group near the end of my PhD (before multiple lockdowns, that is), I shall summarise this chapter of my life with a haiku:
DFT was fun
Lots of time spent fighting tech
PhD is doneWith my PhD complete, I am now transitioning over into the field of computer science. I have just started a postdoctoral research fellow position at University of Exeter, looking at ways of automating transport models for use in reducing the carbon impact of traffic systems.
We wish Ned all the best with his new role.
Below is a list of Ned’s publications, and conferences he has presented at:
Ned has co-authored the following publications:
2020
- December 2020- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, Francis Huw Davies, Isiah Edward Mike Rudkin, Conor Jason Price, Tsz Hin Chan, Steven Paul Hepplestone, ARTEMIS: Ab initio Restructuring Tool Enabling the Modelling of Interface Structures, Computer Physics, volume 257, pages 107515-107515
- October 2020– Taylor N, Galbiati A, Saavedra M, Hepplestone S., Calcium-Stannous Oxide Solid Solutions for Solar Devices, Applied Physics Letters, volume 117, no. 15, pages 153901-153901
- April 2020– Taylor NT, Price CJ, Petkov A, Romanis Carr MI, Hale JC, Hepplestone SP., The Potential of Overlayers on Tin-based Perovskites for Water Splitting, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, volume 11, no. 10, pages 4124-4130
2019
- October 2019– Ned Thaddeus Taylor, Francis Huw Davies, Shane Graham Davies, Conor Jason Price, S P Hepplestone, Fundamental Mechanism Behind Colossal Permittivity in Oxides, Advanced Materials, Adv. Mater. 2019, 1904746
2017
- December 2017– Ned Thaddeus Taylor, Francis Huw Davies, S P Hepplestone, First principles electronic and elastic properties of fresnoite Ba2TiSi2O8, Materials Research Express, Mater. Res. Express 4 (2017) 125904
Ned has presented at the following conferences:
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Presentation: “Solving the Riddle of Colossal Permittivity”, Dielectrics 2019, Manchester, UK, 11th April 2019
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Poster: “Solving the Riddle of Colossal Permittivity”, Materials for Clean Energy Conference (mcec2019), Teddington, London, UK, 9th April 2019
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Poster: “Solving the Riddle of Colossal Permittivity”, Collaborative Computational Project for the Study of the Electronic Structure of Condensed Matter (MCC-UKCP), Warrington, UK, 21st January 2019
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Presentation: “Tuning the Properties of Perovskite Surfaces for Photoelectrolysis”, European Materials Research Society (EMRS Fall 2018), Warsaw, Poland, 18th September 2018
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Poster: “Electronic properties of calcium copper titanate surfaces”, MSSC 2017, London, UK, 18th September 2017
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Poster: “Electronic properties of various calcium copper titanate surfaces and grain boundaries”, Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS 2017), Exeter, UK, 11th September 2017
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Poster: “Electronic properties of calcium copper titanate surfaces”, European Materials Research Society (EMRS 2017), Strasbourg, France, 25th May 2017
- Ned Thaddeus Taylor, S. P. Hepplestone; Presentation: “Electronic properties of various calcium copper titanate surfaces and grain boundaries”, Dielectrics 2017, London, UK, 20th April 2017