Introduction
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physical Sciences at The Open University. My research is mainly on electron collisions with molecules and molecular clusters. Current research projects include:
- the development an application of a method based in Multiple-Scattering to the electron collisions with molecular aggregates. The technique has been successfully applied to the water dimer in various geometries (see our recent publications for more information).
- the application of the R-matrix methodto the study of electronically inelastic processes in electron collisions with biologically relevant molecules. These molecules are bigger than those we normally treat with the R-matrix method and this poses some difficulties in the interpretation of the results.
- the re-engineering and development of a set of high-quality, developer- and user-friendly, Atomic and Molecular high performance computing codes to treat both electron photon interactions with polatomic molecules (UK-RAMP project).
Teaching, etc.
I am Chair of the Atomic and Molecular Interactions Group, one of around 50 IOP subject groups. Currently, I am involved in the redevelopment of our level 2 General Physics course (S207, The Physical world). I am also one of the postgraduate tutors in the Department of Physical Sciences.
PhD position available starting October 2012: Electron attachment to small water-pyridine clusters.
The aim of this project is to contribute to the understanding of how low energy electrons affect cells, especially DNA. We will study the interaction of electrons, particularly the dissociative electron attachment process (known to play a significant role in radiation-induced damage to biological material) with protein constituents and molecules that model those present in DNA, both in gas and aggregated phase. The day to day work will involve using well established software (the UKRmol suite of programs) as well as being involved in the development of new techniques and codes to treat electron interaction with molecules and small molecular clusters.
