Overview

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Welcome

Welcome to the research website of Professor David O. Scanlon. I am currently the Chair in Computational Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. My primary research interests and experience are in the electronic structure and defect chemistry of emerging materials for a wide variety of applications, including but not limited to: transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), photovoltaics (PV), thermoelectrics (TEs), photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, solid state lighting, X-ray and γ-ray radiation detectors, Li-ion and Na-ion batteries, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and topological insulators. A recurring theme in the groups research is the use of rational chemical design to predict the properties of novel inorganic solids for the above applications, and then the full electronic structure and defect chemistry characterization of these materials to test their application suitability.


 

Brief CV

September 2023 – present
Professor in Computational Chemistry in the School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
October 2018 – August 2023
Professor of Computational Materials Design in the Department of Chemistry, University College London, United Kingdom.
October 2016 – September 2016
Reader (Associate Professor) in Computational, Materials and Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, University College London, United Kingdom.
September 2013 – September 2018
Lecturer in Computational, Materials and Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, University College London, United Kingdom.
October 2011 – August 2013
Ramsay Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, University College London, United Kingdom.
October 2010 – September 2011
Post doctoral Research Fellow in the Group of Professor G. W. Watson, School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
October 2006 – September 2010
Ph.D. in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor G. W. Watson, School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
October 2002 – June 2006
B. A. Mod (Hons) in Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.


 

Awards

2022 UCL Student Union Student Choice Award for “Excellent Personal Tutoring”.
2021 RSC Materials Chemistry Division Early Career Award for “contributions to materials modelling of conducting oxides”.
2019 Outstanding Referee of the American Physical Society.
2018 Shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year.
2018 UCL Student Union Student Choice Award for “Outstanding Research Supervision”.
2015 RSC Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize for the “development and application of computational techniques to understanding and predicting the properties of functional semi-conductors for energy applications”.
2014 NSFC Young Scholars Research Fund award to visit the University of Fudan.
2012 Irish Nomination for the IUPAC International Prize for Young Chemists.
2012 Royal Irish Academy Young Chemists Prize 2011, for “the most outstanding Irish PhD thesis of 2011 in the area of chemical sciences”.
2011 Ramsay Memorial Fellowship, University College London.
2011 Thomas Young Centre Junior Research Fellowship, University College London.
2010 Royal Society of Chemistry, Solid State Chemistry Group Travel Bursary.
2010 Trinity Annual Trust Travel Award.
2008/2009 BOC Postgraduate Bursary Award.


 

Professional Memberships

Lead Editor for PRX Energy 2022-Present.
Vice Chair of the RSC Material Chemistry Division Prize Committee 2022-Present.
Committee Member for the Royal Society Research Grants Board: Physical Sciences 2024-Present.
Advisory Board Member for Chemical Communications 2023-Present
Elected Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Energy Sector Committee 2022-Present
Scientific Editor and Editorial Board Member for Materials Horizons 2021-2022.
Chair of the Faraday Institution High Performance Computing Committee 2020- Present.
Committee Member for the Royal Society International Exchanges Committee 2019-Present.
Editorial Advsory Board Member for Advanced Physics Research 2022-Present
Advisory Board Member for Matter 2021-Present.
Editorial Board Member for PRX Energy 2021-Present.
Editorial Advisory Board Member for ACS Applied Energy Materials 2020-Present.
Advisory Board Member for Journal of Materials Chemistry C 2020-Present.
Advisory Board Member for Materials Advances 2020-Present.
Advisory Board Member for Cell Reports: Physical Science 2019-Present.
Secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry Solid State Chemistry Group (RSC-SSCG) 2016-2020.
Committee Member for CCP5 2013-2016.
Committee Member for the Royal Society of Chemistry Solid State Chemistry Group (RSC-SSCG) 2011-2014.
Founding member of the Materials Design Network.
Member of the HPC Materials Chemistry Consortium.
Member of the Thomas Young Centre.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
Member of the Materials Research Society (MRS).
Member of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Member of the EPRSC Peer Review College.
Member of the Science Board of the Energy SuperStore Hub.
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.


 

Teaching/Admin

2020 – 2022 Programme Director of MSc in Materials for Energy and Environment.
2018 – 2023 Lecturer on the “Advanced Topics in Inorganic Chemistry” course for third year undergrad Chemists (CHEM0030).
2016 – 2020 Member of the Chemistry Department Research Committee.
2018 – 2020 Post Graduate Tutor for UCL students at the Harwell Campus.
2017 – 2018 Member of the UCL EPSRC- Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) Small Research Grants Panel.
2016 – 2018 Inorganic Section Teaching Coordinator.
2016 – 2018 Member of the Chemistry Department Teaching Committee.
2015 – 2017 Inorganic Section Seminar Coordinator.
2015 – 2018 Lecturer on the “New Directions in Materials Chemistry” course for third year undergrad Chemists (CHEM3401).
2013 – 2017 Member of the CHEMM901 SARPIC Panel (Final year project marking).
2013 – 2020 Lecturer on the Industrial Doctorate Centre in Molecular Modelling and Materials Science (M3S IDC) in UCL (CHEMGMO4).
2014 – 2020 Tutor for second year Inorganic Chemistry course in UCL (CHEM2102/2103).
2011 – 2014 Tutor for First year Inorganic Chemistry course in UCL (CHEM1101).


 

Conference Organisation

Co-Chair of the 16th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC16), University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, 3-6 July 2023.
Co-Chair of the Faraday Discussions on Emerging inorganic materials in thin-film photovoltaics, Bath, United Kingdom, 4-6 July 2022.
Scientific Committee Member: 15th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC15), University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, 12-15 July 2021.
Co-Organiser: the 40th Annual RSC Solid State Chemistry Group Christmas Meeting, University College London, London 21-22 December 2020
International Program Committee Member: 22st International Conference on Ternary and Multinary Compounds (ICTMC 22), Beijing, China, 20-24 September 2020.
Co-organiser: Symposium on “Organometal halide perovskites: photovoltaics and beyond”, APS March Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA, 2-6 March 2020.
Co-Organiser: the 38th Annual RSC Solid State Chemistry Group Christmas Meeting, University College London, London 17-18 December 2018.
Co-Organiser: TYC 5th Energy Materials Workshop “From Atoms to Applications”, University College London, London 25-27 July 2018.
International Advisory Board Member: 21st International Conference on Ternary and Multinary Compounds (ICTMC 21), CU Boulder, Colorado, USA, 10-14 September 2018.
Co-Organiser: Symposium entitled: “Novel Inorganic Semiconductors for Optoelectronics and Solar Energy” at the MRS Spring meeting in Phoenix, USA 02 – 06 April 2018.
International Advisory Board Member: symposium “Development and Application of New Functional Transparent Conducting and Semiconducting Inorganic Materials” at the CIMTEC conference, Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy, 10-14 June 2018.
International Program Committee (IPC) Member: 29th International Conference on Defects in Semiconductor (ICDS 2017), Matsue, Japan, 31 July to 04 August 2017.
Co-Organiser: Symposium entitled: “Next generation of earth-abundant materials for solar energy” at the eMRS Spring meeting, Strasbourg, France, 22-26 May 2017.
Lead Co-Organiser: Symposium entitled: “Earth abundant and emerging solar energy conversion materials” at the eMRS Spring meeting, Lille, France, 11-15 May 2015.
Scientific Committee Member: symposium “Transparent Conducting Oxides and Related Materials”, at the eMRS Fall meeting, Warsaw, Poland, 15-19 June 2014.
International Advisory Board Member: symposium “Recent Developments in the Research and Application of Transparent Conducting and Semiconducting Oxides” at the CIMTEC conference, Tuscany, 15-20 June 2014.
Co-Organiser: Symposium entitled: “Earth-abundant inorganic solar energy conversion technologies” at the MRS Spring meeting in San Francisco, 21-25 April 2014.
Co-Organiser: the RSC Solid State Chemistry Group Easter Meeting entitled: “Solid State Chemistry and Renewable Energy” at the Kavli Royal Society International Centre in Chichely, 14-16 April 2014.


 

Reviewing

Currently a reviewer for Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, Physical Review Applied, Physical Review X, Scientific Reports, Chemistry of Materials, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Energy and Fuels, Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Journal of Materials Chemistry A/C, Thin Solid Films, Computational Material Science, Materials And Design, Physics Letters A, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Journal of Crystal Growth, Journal of Solid State Chemistry, Chemical Communications, Computer Physics Communications, Electrochemistry Communications, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Journal of Catalysis, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions, Accounts of Chemical Research, Commun. Chem., ChemSusChem, ChemPhysChem, CrystEngComm, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Carbon, Chemical Physics Letters, Materials Chemistry and Physics, Materials Letters, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, Nature Communications, Nature Energy, Chemical Science, Science, Nature Materials, Energy and Environmental Science, APL Materials, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, RSC Advances, MRS Communications, Solid State Communications, Surface and Coatings Technology, Inorganics, Materials Horizons, Inorganic Chemistry, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Electronic Materials, Science Advances, Electrochemica Acta, Nanoscale, Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), French National Research Agency (ANR), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, The Israel Science Foundation, Welsh Government Sêr Cymru II, National Science Foundation of the USA, US Department of Energy, Swiss National Science Foundation, Academic Research Fund Singapore Ministry of Education (AcRF) PRACE, EPSRC, ERC Leverhulme Trust.