Dr Thomas Ostler BSc Hons, PhD, MInstP
Lecturer in Physics and Admissions Tutor for Physics
Summary
Dr Thomas Ostler completed a PhD in computational magnetism at the University of York as part of an EU FP7 project working in the field of ultrafast spin dynamics and optical switching of magnetic materials using spin dynamics models. The research was aimed at developing theoretical models to understand the highly non-equilibriun dynamics of magnetic materials after the action of femtosecond laser pulses.
Tom joined Sheffield Hallam University as a Lecturer of Physics in March 2017 and is also the admissions tutor for the BSc Physics course.
Tom's research expertise includes the use of second principles modelling in the form of spin dynamics and micromagnetic models, as well as, using first principles electronic structure calculations to parameterise Hamiltonians in a so-called hierarchical multi-scale approach.
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About
Tom began his postdoctoral positions at the University of York working jointly as a project manager for a collaborative EU FP7 project on ultrafast magnetism involving 9 universities from across Europe, and Seagate Technology. In 2015 he moved to the University of Exeter to work as a senior postdoctoral research fellow in the Group of Prof Gino Hrkac on functional materials on an EPSRC project with the University of Manchester.
In 2015 Tom was awarded a Marie Curie BeIPD COFUND project at the University of Liège hosted by the Nanomaterials group of Prof Matthieu Verstraete. The project involved using electronic structure calculations to fit second principles Hamiltonians to study the dynamics of magnetic and multiferroic materials.Tom is also a committee member for qan EU COST project (CA17123-MAGNETOFON - Ultrafast opto-magneto-electronics for non-dissipative information technology) and an elected member of the Institute of Physics Magnetism working group.
Details of Grants/Awards:- 14k GPU hours on the Cambridge Service for Data Driven Discovery (CSD3) operated by the University of Cambridge Research Computing Service, provided by Dell EMC and Intel using Tier-2 funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (capital grant EP/P020259/1), and DiRAC funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
- Travel award under COST Action P19 (Multiscale Modeling of Materials) - €1750.
- Marie Curie Incoming (COFUND) Fellow at the University of Liège – salary (2 years) + €16K expenses (travel, consumables, equipment).
- Accomodation award under COST Action MP1306 (Training workshop for SPR-KKR code), €276.Specialist areas of interest:
- Multiscale modelling
- Optical switching
- Ultrafast spin dynamics
- GPU computing
- Interface magnetism. -
Teaching
Department of Engineering and Mathematics
Science, Technology and Arts
Subject Area/Group: Physics
Modules:
- Quantum and Condensed Matter Physics (joint with Simon Clark), BSc (Hons) Physics;
- Applied Engineering Mathematics Tutorials;
- The Professional and Practical Physicists, BSc (Hons) Physics;
- Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics, BSc (Hons) Physics -
Research
- Polymers, Nanocomposites and Modelling Research Centre
- Materials and Engineering Research Institute
Research Gate and Google Scholar profiles.
Past/Selected Projects:
- Marie Curie COFUND: Modeling of Multiferroic Materials, 2015-2017.Collaborators:
- Prof Matthieu Verstraete – University of Liège, Belgium.
- Prof Roy Chantrell – The University of York.
- Prof Gino Hrkac – The University of Exeter.
- Dr Stuart Cavill – The University of York and Diamon Light Source.
- Dr Ilie Radu – Max Born Institute, Berlin.
- Prof Andreas Scherz – European XFEL, Hamburg.
- Prof Tom Thomson – The University of Manchester.
- Dr Unai Atxitia – The University of Konstanz, Germany.
- Dr Oksana Chubykalo-Fesenko, ICMM, Madrid.
- Dr Chudong Xu, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
- Prof Kaushik Roy, Purdue University, USA.
- Prof Hermann Dürr, SLAC, CA, USA.
- Dr Matthew Ellis, Trinity College, Dublin.
- Prof Aldo Romero, West Virginia State University, USA.
- Dr Ezio Iacocca, University of Colorado, Bolder, USA.
- Dr Zubair Al Azim, Intel, CA, USA. -
Publications
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Other activities
Ad Hoc Reviewer: Nature Light: Science and Applications, Nature Scientific Reports, Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. B, Phys. Rev. Appl., Phys. Rev. E., Journal of Alloys and Compounds, JAP, JMMM, APL, IEEE Trans Magn, MMM Annual Conf. Proc.
Reviewer of Grants for External Organisations: Deutsche Forschungsgemeimschaft (DFG).
Conference and Workshop Organisation and Session Chairs:
2019 – IOP Magnetism Conference, Leeds, UK – Joint Programme Chair.
2015 – EMN Ultrafast Meeting on Ultrafast, Las Vegas – International Program Committee.
2015 – Ultrafast Magnetism Conference, Nijmegen, The Netherlands – Chair of session “Ultrafast Magnetic Control”.
2016 – Sol-SkyMag, San Sebastian, Spina – Chair of session “Spintronics and Spin Orbit Effects”.