Employment history
- Assistant Professor, University of Warwick, November 2023 – present
- EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Bristol, August 2017 – October 2023 (3-year grant interrupted by extended sickness absence – 3–3.5 years of full-time research since PhD)
- Principal investigator on EPSRC fellowship EP/P033830/1 in the School of Physics.
- Discovered the ‘general symmetry breaking’ common to many 2D materials – predicts a memory timescale.
- Co-created rejection-free Monte Carlo (with the software package JeLLyFysh) for stable molecular simulation.
- Co-produced an in-depth article for stats/machine learning on statistical physics and its simulation algorithms.
- Supervised two final-year undergraduate projects and co-convened an undergraduate laboratory-project module.
- Visiting scientist, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris, September 2017 – October 2018
- Collaborative project developing MCMC algorithms for systems with long-range interactions (e.g., water).
- Visiting scientist, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, April 2018
- Pilot project developing industrial standard version of our new MCMC water algorithm.
- Senior Teaching Associate, University of Bristol, September 2016 – July 2017
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Bristol, February – September 2016
Education
- PhD Theoretical Physics, November 2011 – January 2015
- University College London and Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon
- Avec la mention très honorable (the highest available honour).
- Supervisors: Steven T. Bramwell and Peter C. W. Holdsworth.
- Examiners: Ian J. Ford, Anthony C. Maggs, Stephen Powell and Tommaso Roscilde.
- MASt in Applied Mathematics, 2010 – 2011
- University of Cambridge
- Honours in Part III Mathematics, specializing in the theories of particle physics and general relativity.
- BSc (Hons) Mathematical Physics, 2007 – 2010
- University of Nottingham
- First Class, finishing top of the academic year.
Research funding
- EPSRC research fellowship EP/P033830/1, August 2017 – October 2023
- £293,118.
- Research fellow and principal investigator.
- Three year grant interrupted by extended sickness absence.
- Visiting scientist, Ecole normale supérieure, September 2017 – October 2018
- £21,500 in-kind contribution to my EPSRC fellowship.
- Max Planck Institute fellowship, April 2018
- Approximately €2,500.
- Visiting researcher.
- Funded by ANR JCJC-2013 ArtiQ , December 2014 – February 2015
- Approximately £5,000.
- Doctoral researcher.
- CNRS – UCL IMPACT joint studentship, December 2011 – November 2014
- Approximately £100, 000.
- Doctoral researcher.
Invited talks
- Departmental Seminar, Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, November 2023
- Fast sampling at phase transitions in statistical physics
- Algorithms and Computationally Intensive Inference Seminars, University of Warwick, October 2023
- Fast sampling at phase transitions in statistical physics
- Perfect sampling workshop, Royal Statistical Society, June 2023
- Fast sampling at phase transitions in statistical physics
- Theory Group Seminar, Department of Physics, University of Warwick, January 2023
- General symmetry breaking at a topological phase transition
- Departmental Seminar, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Plymouth, December 2022
- Statistical physics and its sampling algorithms: how it works and why a statistician should care
- Theory Group Seminar, Department of Physics, University of Birmingham, October 2022
- General symmetry breaking at a topological phase transition
- Departmental Seminar, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Toulouse, December 2019
- Adventures in electrolytes: from nonergodicity in emergent ones to rejection-free Monte Carlo in real ones
- Departmental Seminar, Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux, December 2019
- Adventures in electrolytes: from nonergodicity in emergent ones to rejection-free Monte Carlo in real ones
- Theory Group Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, April 2018
- Rejection-free Monte Carlo in liquid water
- Theory Group Seminar, HH Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, March 2018
- Ergodicity breaking in two-dimensional systems with XY symmetry
- Theory Group Seminar, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, November 2015
- Topology and emergence in Berezinksii-Kosterlitz-Thouless systems
Conference organisation
- Sampling methods in statistical physics and Bayesian inference
- One-day satellite conference at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge on 18 July 2017.
- Theme: sampling from complex probability distributions, with an emphasis on nonreversible processes.
- Connected scientists from statistical physics and Bayesian computation.
Teaching
- School of Physics, University of Bristol, 2018 – 2019
- Co-supervisor: Statistical physics coding lab for third-year undergraduates.
- School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, 2016 – 2017
- Problems classes: Probability, statistics and linear algebra to first-year undergraduates.
- Problems classes: Applied partial differential equations to second-year undergraduates.
Outreach and widening participation
- Teacher and mentor, DigiLocal High Tech Bristol and Bath, 2016 – 2018
- Taught coding to 8- to 14-year-old state-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Built a long-term partnership between Digilocal and the University of Bristol.
- Mentor, Social Mobility Foundation, 2017 - 2018
- Mentored a state-school pupil from a disadvantaged background.
- Offered educational and career advice.
- Summer school coordinator and teacher, in2scienceUK, Summer 2014
- Devised and directed a summer school for state-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Taught the introductory theory of quantum mechanics.
- Mathematics tutor, Action Tutoring, 2012 – 2013
- Tutored mathematics to state-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Acted as a mentor for the students.
