Join Us

We are actively recruiting motivated students and post-doctoral researchers!
You can reach out to Seán via email (sk2045[at]cam.ac.uk), and it is helpful to include a brief description of your background, a CV and any relevant experience, to help determine potential research projects.

Experience with computational methods (Python / coding, machine learning, DFT…) is certainly a plus, but not required, just a willingness to learn and a passion for research! (Seán had no computational experience before his PhD!). Some knowledge in the physical sciences – chemistry, physics, materials science, maths – is also beneficial, but again not a dealbreaker and we are happy to train you in the necessary background.

Our Research page gives a flavour of what we do, but we are always open to new ideas and approaches, so if you have a specific project in mind that you would like to work on, feel free to reach out.

Our Commitment to You

We have built a comprehensive internal wiki and accompanying set of group resources (code & video tutorials, condensed notes and walkthroughs) to help you get up to speed quickly. Seán and group members are committed to mentoring you through your growth as an independent researcher. We are a friendly and inclusive group, and we welcome all backgrounds.

Undergraduate, Masters’ and PhD students that Seán has supervised have won research awards (Catlow prize for best PhD in Chemistry, Sharp and Nyholm prizes for best MSc/MSci in Theoretical and Inorganic Chemistry respectively, …), published papers in leading journals (Energy & Environmental Science, npj Computational Materials, Joule, Matter…) and achieved top grades for their projects. Seán was award a UCL MAPS Faculty Education Award and nominated for the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Academic Supervision and Tutoring.

Fellowships

We are extremely supportive of students and postdocs applying for external fellowships to fund their research, and we have a strong track record of success in this area. There are a number of opportunities for fellowships at Cambridge. If you are interested in applying for a fellowship, please reach out to Seán to discuss potential projects and application strategies.

Alumni

Some previously mentored students include:

• Irea Mosquera-Lois, President’s PhD Scholar at Imperial College London (Psi-K Collaborating Early-Career Investigators Finalists)
• Xinwei Wang, Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Imperial College London
• Adair Nicolson, PhD Student at University College London (Catlow prize for Best Computational Chemistry PhD Student at UCL)
• Bodoo Batnaran, PhD Student at the University of Oxford (Nyholm Prize for best MSci graduate in Inorganic Chemistry at UCL)
• Helen Spong, Data Engineer at KPMG (Sharp Prize for best MSci graduate in Theoretical/Computational Chemistry at UCL)
• Cibrán López Álvarez, PhD Student at UPC Barcelona