Dr Michael L. Baker MRSC FHEA – Senior Lecturer and Diamond-Manchester Research Fellow (He / Him)
Mike Baker completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Exeter (Physics BSc Hons). He obtained a PhD in neutron spectroscopy via an Institut Laue Langevin fellowship. He was a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Material Research, Tohoku University, within the group of Prof. Hiroyuki Nojiri. He spent a short stint in the groups of Prof. Myriam Sarachik (CCNY, Dept. Physics) and Prof. Andy Kent (NYU, Dept. Physics). He then obtained a Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship from the Human Frontiers Science Program to work for Prof. Edward I. Solomon at Stanford, Dept. Chemistry. In 2018 Mike was appointed as Diamond Light Source – Manchester Research Fellow at the University of Manchester at Harwell and Department of Chemistry. In 2020, he was awarded a Community for Analytical Measurement Fellowship. In 2021, he obtained a New Investigator Award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. In 2024, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer.
ZhiBo (Alan) Qi – PhD Student (He / Him)
Alan is studying f-block electronic structure and magnetism. He has a Diamond Light Source studentship and is co-supervised by Dr Shu Hayama (I20-scanning) and Dr Peter Bencok (I10-BLADE). Alan conducted his MChem studies in the Baker group working on the inelastic neutron scattering of lanthanide molecular magnets.
Charlotte Waters – PhD Student (She / Her)
Charlie (Charlotte) completed her MChem at The University of Manchester (2018-2022). During the time, she undertook materials based research projects. She is now doing an interdisciplinary PhD based within the department for Earth and Environmental Science with Prof. Sam Shaw and Prof. Kath Morris and Dr Tom Neill, whilst being co-supervised by Dr Mike Baker. Her work focuses on developing U L3 and M4,5 -edge EXAFS, HERFD-XANES and RIXS capabilities for environmentally relevant uranium complexes, for decommissioning purposes. Charlie is part of a joint studentship funded by UoM and Diamond Light Source, where she is co-supervised by Prof Fred Mosselmans and Dr Konstantin Ignatyev.
Charlie Moir – PhD Student (He/Him)
Charlie is utilising various X-ray spectroscopy techniques to develop novel insights into the f-block elements. Charlie obtained research experience at Unilever, during his placement year, and in the Barran lab, where he completed his MChem project.
Alannah Francis – PhD Student (She/Her)
Alannah (Lana), is a computational chemist working with Dr Meagan Oakley and co-supervised by Mike. Her research focuses on the computation of f-element electronic structure and X-ray spectra using correlated quantum chemistry methods. She completed her MChem at Cardiff University with a placement year at the University of Florida. Her placement and undergraduate projects were based on benchmarking electronic structure theory methods.
Luca Perego – PhD Student (He / Him)
Luca obtained his degree in Physical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and carried out his master’s thesis at the ID10 beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) under the co-supervision of Beatrice Ruta and Marco Cammarata. His research focuses on the electronic structure of actinides, investigated via RIXS and computational quantum chemistry methods. Luca is a member of the NEXTSTEP PhD Programme, and his doctoral project is co-funded by ESRF and co-supervised by Dr. Pieter Glatzel, beamline scientist at ID26.
Amy Matthews – PhD Student (She / Her)
Amy graduated from the University of Bath with an undergraduate master’s in chemistry, which included an industrial placement at PhosphonicS working on the recovery of trace amounts of platinum group metals. Her master’s project involved synthesis and characterisation of metal organic frameworks. She is now pursuing a PhD in the Baker group focusing on state-of-the-art spectroscopy of actinide materials, co-supervised by Dr Robert Harrison in the Nuclear Fuels Centre for Excellence Group.
Eleanor Baird – MChem Student (She / Her)
Eleanor joins the Baker group in the final year of her MChem degree, having completed an analytical project during her placement year at AkzoNobel. Her project uses computational techniques to contrast actinide and lanthanide electronic structure.
Previous Group Members
Dr Timothy G. Burrow – Beamline Scientist, MARS, Synchrotron SOLEIL, France
Tim obtained his PhD in Baker Group. His research identified sensitivities of M45-edge RIXS to actinide-ligand covalency. Tim went on to a post-doctoral position at the MARS beamline at Synchrotron Soleil where he works on the development of their M45-edge RIXS capabilities. [Linkedin]
Dr Rasmus Tang Christiansen – PDRA at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Rasmus obtained his PhD within the Baker Group, funded by an Institut Laue Langevin PhD studentship studying valence delocalised spin excitations in molecular magnets. Rasmus has now joined Henry La Pierre and Martin Mourigal at Georgia Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher associate looking into both molecular and extended quantum systems, with a particular focus on f-elements and vibronic coupling. He is funded by the US Department of Energy on a Quantum Information Science grant.
Dr Myron S. Huzan – PDRA at Max IV, Sweden
Myron obtained his PhD in the Baker group and continued on as a PDRA for two more years. Across this time, the focus of his research shifted from the study of the magnetic and electronic structure of single ion dopants within crystalline matter to applying experimental and computational techniques to probe f-block electronic structure. He now joins Max IV as a PDRA.
Dr Nathan Alcock – PDRA at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Nathan obtained his PhD in the Baker group. His research involved the use of RIXS measurements and computational quantum chemical methods to probe the electronic structure of actinides. He has since joined the group of Ping Yang as a PDRA at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He works on the theoretical study of actinides.
Dr Alban B. Riley
Alban Bloor Riley obtained his PhD from The University of Manchester as a part of an interdisciplinary project with Mike Baker and Marcus Webb (from the Mathematics Department). His research focused on developing new algorithms for solving the inverse eigenvalue problem associated with inelastic neutron spectroscopy experiments. Alban has since started work with the Office for National Statistics.
Charlotte Dixon – MPhys Student Charlotte Dixon went on to study for a PhD in the research group of Joel Turner at the University of Manchester.
James Dixon – MPhys Student
Hoi Ng – Mchem Student
Sayantan Sarkar – MSc Student. Sayantan went on to study for a PhD in the research group of Tatiana Marchenko at Sorbonne Université.
Matei Pascariu – MChem Student Matei went on to study for a PhD at the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science.
Chad Keeling – MChem Student
Ryan Dempsey – MChem Student During his time in the group, Ryan contributed to a published paper (O. Stagg, K. Morris et al., Environ. Sci. Technol., 2022, 56, 24, 17643–17652). He then went on to do a PhD with Prof. Nikolas Kaltsoyannis.
Joy Chiappella – MChem Student During her time in the group, Joy contributed to a published paper (P. Sadhukhan, S. Wu et al., Nat. Commun., 2023, 14, 3394)
JiaFu Xian – MSc Student
Sut Kei Chong – MChem Student
Sut Kei Sut Kei went on to do a PhD at UCL. During her time in the group, Sut Kei contributed to a published paper (M. S. Huzan et al. Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 2433)
Jin An – MSc Student