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Department of Physics

Dr. Neil Wilson

PhD position available for 2025 start:

Probing two-dimensional ferroic heterostructures.

Please contact me if you are interested.

Research Interests

- Two dimensional materials
- Spatially resolved electron spectroscopy
- Scanning probe and electron microscopy
- Carbon nanomaterials (graphene, chemically modified graphene, and SWNTs)

Professor in condensed matter physics, Microscopy group, Department of Physics, University of Warwick

Current Research

My interest is in correlating atomic and mesoscale structure with physical properties in nanomaterials, with an emphasis on quantitative measurements. My current research is mainly on the structural, mechanical, electronic and electrical properties of graphene and other two dimensional materials (2DMs). I am a fan of microARPES, particularly to reveal the electronic structure of 2DMs and 2D heterostructures (collaboration with the Cobden and Xu groups at the University of Washington at Seattle, and the group of Professor Roman Gorbachev at the National Graphene Institute at Manchester University) and this closely links to theory work at Warwick and elsewhere. I have worked on chemically modified graphene in collaboration with Dr Jon Rourke (Chemistry) and chemical vapour deposition of graphene and hBN (with Dr Gavin Bell). I have developed graphene and graphene oxide based TEM supports for high resolution imaging of molecular and macromolecular species (this has led to the graphene oxide TEM grids sold by EMResolutions). I have an interest in molecular microscopy on graphene and have worked with Dr James Covington on graphene based gas sensors. I also specialise in scanning probe based measurements and this crosses over into work on other carbon based materials such as diamond and polymeric and molecular semiconductors.

Selected Publications

Our group publication page is usually up to date. I am listed on Google Scholar, and on ORCiD. Selected highlights:

Group

I currently supervise 3 graduate students: Mujahid Shiffa (PhD 2021 start), Yogal Prasad Ghimirey (2023 start), and Vaishnavi Ravi (MScR jointly with Alex Robertson). Past PhD and MPhys students include Priyanka Pandey (PhD, 2008-2012), Grace Wood (MScR, 2013-2014, passed with distinction), Alex Marsden (PhD, 2011-2015), Zac Laker (2014-2018), Natalie Teutsch (2015-2019), Xue Xia (2016-2020), Abi Graham (2018-2022), James Nunn (2020-2024), Matteo Borghi (2019-2024), and Laxman Nagi-Reddy (2020-2024). I jointly supervised Mark Skilbeck (2012-2016) with Dr Rachel Edwards, Ultrasound group, and Dawn Wood (2012-2016) with Professor Tim Jones, Chemistry department. I have supervised or co-supervised many summer project students and final year project students.

If you are interested in working with me please contact me!

Background

I graduated from the Natural Sciences Tripos at Pembroke College Cambridge in 1999. I won a Thouron scholarship to study for a Masters in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania, working with Professors Charlie Kane and Gene Mele on the theory behind STM images of individual quantum states in short carbon nanotubes. I returned to the UK in 2000 for a PhD with Boris Muzykantskii and David Cobden. I completed my PhD in the Physics Department of the University of Warwick in 2004, graduating in 2005. My PhD thesis on "Electronic Transport in Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes, and their Application as Scanning Probe Microscopy tips" is available here. I stayed in Warwick to follow-up on the work started in my thesis, doing three years on postdoctoral projects with Professor Julie Macpherson in the Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group mainly on the electrical and electrochemical properties of single walled carbon nanotubes. In October 2007 I was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Warwick University, in 2012 I was made Associate Professor and in 2019 I was made Professor.

I was a member of the Institute of Physics science advisory committee, of the scanning probe microscopy section and of the RMS outreach committee of the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS), a winner of the RMS mid-career scientific achievement award in 2024, and of the Diamond Light Source i05 peer review panel. I am currently on the IOP 2D Materials editorial board.

Teaching and administration

This year I am teaching the first year PX157 Electricity and Magnetism course, tutorials, the exam coordinator for Physics, the microscopy courses, and final year projects.

 

Outreach

We regularly demonstrate the microscopy facilities to school children, and I have prepared lectures on nanotechnology and microscopy suitable for presenting at schools or to the general public. If you would like more information please contact me. I also have an interest in the Art of Science - the intrinsic beauty of the physical world expressed through visual representations. Nanostructures in particular can have startling and surprising elegance in form. These 'art' works can also spark the imagination and help in the engagement with science. I will add some examples from my own work (click here), along with explanations of how they can be used to express important scientific concepts. In 2010 I helped organise the Snapshots of Science, see the website for more information. I was a member of the RMS Outreach committee.

 

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Professor Neil Wilson
Microscopy Group
Department of Physics,
University of Warwick,
Coventry
CV4 7AL

Office: MAS2.08
+44 (0)24 765 24168
Neil.Wilson@warwick.ac.uk

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