Research group

Digital and Data-Driven Methods

Students undertaking work at a computer station.

We develop theory, computational methods, and associated software, to enhance our understanding of chemical systems and processes. The University supports us with high-performance computing resources.

About

We make leading contributions in wide-ranging applications that connect to other important themes in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, such as materials, catalysis, and health

These applications use the group's expertise in simulation methods, covering a wide range from electronic structure to the large-scale behaviour of complex systems. They also involve process integration and systems analysis. The work involves developing machine learning and using large-scale data to improve our understanding of chemical systems and processes.

As the academic lead of the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure, we develop national facilities to drive data science and machine learning methods across the whole discipline.

People, projects and publications

People

Professor Chris Skylaris

Professor of Computational Chemistry

Research interests

  • Development of large-scale electronic structure methods, based on Density Functional Theory within the ONETEP program (onetep.org)
  • Development of atomistic and multiscale simulation methods for materials using quantum and classical methods, and machine-learned potentials
  • Application of these simulation methods to discover advanced materials in technologically relevant problems such as batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and drud optimisation

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Chris

Professor Graeme Day

Professor of Chemical Modelling

Research interests

  • crystal structure prediction
  • materials discovery
  • computational chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Graeme

Professor Jeremy Frey

Professor of Physical Chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jeremy

Professor Jonathan Essex

Professor

Research interests

  • Molecular simulations of biological systems
  • Computer aided drug discovery
  • Method development in molecular simulations

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jonathan

Dr Karl Michael Ziems

Lecturer in Computational Chemistry

Research interests

  • Ultrafast dynamics
  • Quantum computing 
  • Quantum chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Karl Michael

Dr Mark Goulding

Research interests

  • Digital and data driven research
Connect with Mark

Dr Sergio Vernuccio PhD, CEng, MIChemE, MRSC, FHEA

Associate Professor in Chemical Eng.

Research interests

  • Complex reaction kinetics
  • Microkinetic modelling
  • Heterogeneous catalysis

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Sergio

Professor Simon Coles

Professor of Structural Chemistry

Research interests

  • The work we do is highly collaborative and multidisciplinary and can broadly be split into three overlapping themes:
  • 1) National Crystallography Service (NCS, www.ncs.ac.uk) & Physical Sciences Data-science Service (PSDS, www.psds.ac.uk) These national centres provide centralised facilities for UK researchers at a level that is beyond that achievable in any single institution. The NCS provides data collection and crystal structure analysis for the UK chemistry community. It also performs projects based on more advanced techniques, involving a dedicated team of experts employing cutting edge techniques and the use of very high-powered laboratory diffractometers or the UK synchrotron, Diamond. The PSDS provides national-level access to databases and is building infrastructure on top of these to drive and support data-driven approaches to scientific discovery.
  • 2) Structural Chemistry We have an interest in determining the mechanisms of solid-state reactions and transformations and use a variety of diffraction and physical characterisation methods for this. Other work focuses on discovering and investigating structure-property relationships, the determination of charge densities and their properties and 'value-added' quantum mechanical calculations to compute properties from crystal structures. We also collaborate with other disciplines in a number of areas such as macromolecular crystallography (Biology), crystal growth (biology) and CT imaging (Engineering).

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Simon

Dr Xi Yu

Lecturer in Chemical Engineering

Research interests

  • Low carbon fuels
  • Granulation and tableting
  • Computational fluid dynamics

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Xi

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

Get in touch

If you have a question for the group or the School, please contact us using the email addresses below.

Group administration

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering