After four months of lockdown, the research group was finally able to meet up in person for an end of year celebration at Lake Pupuke!

First and foremost, we must congratulate Tilo on his recent promotion to Professor. The group are so proud to see him reach this milestone and look forward to his inaugural lecture (date TBC).

The group also welcomed three new members to the research group. Thomas and Nargiss are joining the group for their honours project in 2022, and Mika is our new group puppy with the sole purpose of providing emotional support and joy by being cute. Welcome all!

It was so lovely to catch up with the extended group and their partners before we wrap up for 2022. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Inorganic Materials Research Group has a lot of news to share in 2021!

In February, the group farewelled Dr Ben Mallet, who had been the groups postdoc throughout 2020. Ben has moved on to the Robinson Institute at the Victoria University of Wellington, and remains a key collaborator with the research group.

In December, we welcomed Marco Vás, who joined the group on a summer research scholarship. Marco is staying on with the group for his honours project, which you can read on about on the group page.

In March, we also welcomed Kenny Kwok, who is completing his post-grad diploma research project with the group.

In April, Andrew Chan handed in his doctoral thesis. We wish him all the best with his future defence!

In May, we’ve welcomed Dr Samuel Yick as the new group post-doc. Sam comes to us following a post-doc with Associate Professor Clemens Ulrich at UNSW and is researching Skyrmions with the group.

Finally, in June we congratulated (now Dr) Dana Goodacre on successfully defending her thesis! Dana is the first PhD to defend a thesis since 2017 and is now taking a break from science to work as a policy advisor with MBIE in Wellington.

The group has just had its first Science Advances paper published! The paper focuses on the skyrmion host material, Te-doped Cu₂OSeO₃ thin films. Co-authors Rosanna Rov and Luis Camacho prepared and studied the single crystals used in this publication in for their Masters and Honours theses respectively. Congrats to all co-authors on the publication!

Find the full text at:

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/13/eaax2138

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax2138

The Inorganic Materials Research Group were delighted to release their line of matching hoodies last Friday afternoon!

The group attended the 44th Condensed Matter and Materials Meeting in Rotorua earlier this month. It was great to be among other solid state researchers and have the chance to catch up with friends and collaborators from across the ditch.

Continue reading Wagga 2020 →

Milestones

With 2019 well underway we have some wonderful milestones to share:

Congratulations to Rosanna and Malin for handing in their master’s theses, and good luck to Arnold who is currently finishing off his Masters research/write-up.

Welcome back to and Patrikk who has just returned to the group to start his own Masters project.

Congratulations to Martin for his recent publication titled “Synthesis and Structural Determination of the Disordered Bixbyite Cu_3‐xSb_1+xO_5.5+3x/2 with Spin‐Glass Behaviour”, covering his research into occupational disorder in ternary copper antimony oxides.

Congratulations also to Andrew for his prize-winningposter Superconducting Sandwiches which wowed viewers at MacDiarmid Institutes AMN9 conference.

A warm welcome to Mark Smith and Ryan Silk who have started their honours research in the group. We also welcome Majid Ali to the group for his doctoral study into metal complexes using computational methods.

Events

UNSW Summer School of Ferroelectrics

Rosanna, Sneh and Martin attended the School of Ferroelectrics in Sydney which was a 5 day school covering the theory and applications of Ferroelectricity (spontaneous and reversible electric polarization in a material). Major applications of ferroelectric materials include tuneable capacitors and data storage.

Wagga 2019 (43rd Condensed Matter Physics Conference)

Tilo and Rosanna attended the annual Wagga conference which focuses on condensed matter and materials research. Rosanna’s team won the pub quiz and were awarded the prestigious Lindsay Davis Cup, following in Tilo’s footsteps whose group won it in 2014.

MacDiarmid AMN9 Conference

Sneh and Andrew attended the AMN9 in Wellington in February and Andrew’s poster on Superconducting Sandwiches won a prize, congratulations!

Round the Bays

Sneh, Tim and honorary group members Shinji, Mansa, Danny and Mike ran the Auckland Round the Bays recently, raising over $1000 for Shine NZ. Mike got 50 min, Tim got 54min (and a nasty sunburn), Sneh got 56min and Danny, Shinji and Mansa got roughly 1hr13min.

Te Aroha Group Walk

A large chunk of the group went for a day trip to Te Aroha, east of Hamilton, for a wonderful day hike (after surviving the trip there); the weather was perfect!

It’s been a wild couple of months with multiple research trips and events attended by the group. We should start though by congratulating Tim for successfully completing his provisional year review and to Patrick for handing in his PgDipSci dissertation.

Continue reading November Superpost →

53.33% of Söhnel group members were born in August, so it seemed fitting to have one big birthday dinner to celebrate them all. This past Saturday evening the group and friends enjoyed a Banquet at the wonderful Tiffin Indian restaurant in Kingsland. Happy birthday and/or thank you all for attending!

Thank you Rosanna for the amazing dark chocolate and raspberry cake!

Continue reading Söhnel Group Birthday Bash →

Sneh and Joe joined Natalija for her Synchrotron IR experiment earlier this month. The Far-Infrared beamline was used to investigate structural changes in Natalija’s Cobalt-Iron Antimony Oxide series of compounds.

Continue reading Synchrotron Far-IR Trip →

Some of the Söhnel group splintered off for a trip to Coromandel on the weekend, accompanied by special guests Ramon Quitales, Praveen George Vadakkedath and Marc Söhnel. Everyone braved the wind and rain to check out Cathedral Cove along the eastern coast of the peninsula. (Credit to Ramon for the awesome photos)

From left: Tim, Praveen, Joe, Nat, Martin, Rosanna, Tilo and Marc, Andrea, Ramon

Continue reading Coromandel Daytrip →