People

Group Members:

Marcus C. Newton	Dr Marcus C. Newton BSc (London), PhD (UCL), MInstP, FHEA Principal Investigator Academic Background Dr. Newton is a lecturer in the department of Physics & Astronomy. He earned his Ph.D. from University College London in the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN). He then spent a number of highly productive years at the LCN conducting research in the field of coherent X-ray imaging and utilising the APS light source for experiments on nanoscale crystals. He was then invited to join Hokkaido University as professor of physics at the assistant level and was awarded the prestigious JSPS Kakenhi award to carry out research into ultra-fast structural dynamics using the SACLA X-ray free electron laser (XFEL). He subsequently returned to the UK and joined the Physics & Astronomy department at the University of Southampton. Undergraduate Teaching Crystalline Solids, Computer Techniques in Physics Research Interests Dr. Newton is interested in understanding phenomena in correlated electronic materials such as vanadium dioxide and zinc oxide. His research is focused on the use of coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (CXDI) to study nanoscale materials at hard X-ray synchrotron sources such as the SACLA X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) facility and the Diamond Light Source. He is also at the forefront in the study of self-assembled nanoscale materials and devices. These include group II-VI semiconductor materials such as zinc oxide (ZnO). Dr. Newton also conducts theoretical research into non-linear optimisation and the phase retrieval problem which is encountered in a number of disciplines including X-ray crystallography, sparse-aperture imagery and astronomy. Dr. Newton also continues to investigate how the theory of compressed sensing can be applied to the non-convex phase retrieval problem. He is also the author of the Interactive Phase Retrieval Suite, the first software package that allows for real-time visualisation of the reconstruction of phase information in both two and three dimensions. This is used for analysing diffraction data obtained from coherent X-ray diffraction imaging experiments.
Ahmed Mohamed	Ahmed Mohamed Masters Student
Evan Ng	Evan Ng Masters Student
Rowland Rich	Rowland Rich Masters Student
David Serban	David Serban Masters Student

Visiting Scientists:

Ulrich Wagner Dr Ulrich Wagner X-ray Optics Scientist Ulrich is a member of the X-ray optics group at the Swiss Light Source (SLS), Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland.

Dusan Plasienka Dr Dusan Plasienka Dusan is a visiting scientist with interests that include ab initio modelling of structural and electronic transitions in crystalline and disordered materials, high-pressure and temperature behavior of liquids and solids, phase diagrams, crystal structure prediction and simulations of transformation mechanisms from molecular dynamics and metadynamics.

Alumni:

George Lancaster	George Lancaster Masters Student
Charles Opoku	Dr Charles Opoku Post-doctoral Research Associate
Adam Pietraszewski	Adam Pietraszewski Masters Student
Anthony Kenny	Anthony Kenny Masters Student
Simon Payne	Simon Payne Masters Student
Charlie Turner	Charlie Turner Masters Student
Elena Ureña Horno	Elena Ureña Horno Ph.D. candidate