Congratulations to Tom Hitchings for passing his PhD viva!
Tom Hitchings, a PhD student within the MEE group under the supervision of Dr Paul Saines, passed his viva subject to minor corrections on Wednesday the 26th of June. His thesis was entilted “Structural Analysis of Functional Coordination Frameworks” and described studies of how a range of functional properties emerge from the structure and dynamics of coordination frameworks in which metals are connected by ligands into an extended structure. These properties include relaxor-like ferroelectricity which has applications in harvesting waste mechanical energy, negative linear compressibility materials that expand in one dimension under pressure and magnetocalorics for solid-state cryogenic cooling. Tom’s examiners were Dr Eddie Cussen (Technological University Dublin) and Dr Maria Alfredsson (MEE Group). Congratulations Tom!