Thomas White has joined the ISP Academic Team via an EPSRC grant on Hexagonal Materials in 2014.
I recently joined the Institute of Shock Physics after completing my doctorate at the University of Oxford working on the creation and diagnosis of extreme matter states with high power optical and x-ray lasers. I have worked on the Titan laser (LLNL, USA), the Vulcan and Gemini lasers (RAL, UK), the FLASH free electron laser (Hamburg, Germany) and the LCLS free electron laser (Stanford, USA). These experiments were complemented by extensive computational work on high energy density equation of state and dynamical properties, carried out with large-scale molecular dynamics and density function theory calculations.
I am currently working on the HexMat EPSRC programme grant looking at the performance of hexagonal alloy systems used by the Aero, Energy and Defence sectors. Together with two ERASMUS students, Quentin de Menech and Alexandre Wirtzler, I am building a new air-bearing based Split-Hopkinson bar specifically for precision measurements of low strain rate behaviour in single crystal titanium. In addition to this I am as assisting in the development of a new laser laboratory for studying high strain rate shocks and matter under extreme conditions as part of the Cerberus project.
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Ciara Mulholland
Department of Physics
