Dr Rachel Evans joined us in a new University Lecturer post on 3rd January 2017. She will be making a contribution to teaching immediately as she is giving a course on Soft Matter this term to Part III students.

Rachel's research interests are focused on the design and characterization of new photoactive and photoresponsive materials for application in solar energy conversion, optical sensing and stimuli-responsive membranes. She is particularly interested in unravelling structure-property relationships in complex organic-inorganic hybrid materials and leveraging this knowledge to develop new applications in materials science. Research in her group is highly interdisciplinary, involving a combination of materials chemistry, structural characterisation using X-rays and neutrons, and advanced photophysical characterisation.

Dr Nick Jones began his new role as University Lecturer at the beginning of the academic year, having previously been involved in the Department's teaching through his post-doctoral reseacher post within the Department's Rolls-Royce UTC. He will continue to support the teaching of X-ray and neutron diffraction methods via his Part II lecture course and this year he will give a lecture course in Part IA on mechanical behaviour of materials.

Nick's resesrch interests are primarily focussed on developing materials and technologies to improve efficiency within the aerospace industry. He specialises in high temperature materials, transforming alloys and engineering alloys.