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Kenneth Harris

Professor Kenneth Harris

Distinguished Research Professor

School of Chemistry

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

  • Formulation, development and application of new strategies and techniques for structure determination from powder X-ray diffraction data.
  • Chemistry and physics of solid inclusion compounds, focusing on incommensurate structural properties, dynamic properties, chemical properties, crystal growth processes and the development of applications of these materials.
  • Molecular motion, disorder and phase transitions in crystalline solids, with particular interest in understanding dynamics of hydrogen bonding arrangements using solid state NMR techniques.
  • Fundamentals of crystallization processes and polymorphism.

Links

Kenneth Harris' Publication List (pdf) 

For more information, click on the 'Research' tab above.

Publication

2024

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Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

  • Arora, M., Pineda, S., Williams, P., Harris, K. and Kariuki, B. 2017. Polymorphic adaptation. Presented at: 17th International Conference, CAAD Futures 2017, Istanbul, 12-14 July 2017 Presented at Çağdaş, G. et al. eds.Future Trajectories of Computation in Design. Istanbul: Istanbul Technical University pp. 474-491.
  • Pineda, S., Arora, M., Williams, P. A., Kariuki, B. and Harris, K. D. M. 2016. The Grammar of crystallographic expression. Presented at: Acadia 2016, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 27-29 October 2016Acadia 2016 Posthuman Frontiers: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines: Projects Catalog of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture. Ann Arbor: Acadia Publishing Company pp. 236-243.
  • Sutter, J. P., Dolbnya, I. P., Collins, S. P., Harris, K. D. M., Edwards-Gau, G. R., Kariuki, B. and Palmer, B. A. 2016. Novel technique for spatially resolved imaging of molecular bond orientations using x-ray birefringence. Presented at: 12th Annual Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation - SRI2015, New York City, NY, USA, 6-10 July 2015Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation - SRI2015, Vol. 1741. American Institute of Physics pp. 50009., (10.1063/1.4952929)
  • Williams, E., Brousseau, E., Lavery, N., Mehraban, S., Keast, V., Hughes, C. and Harris, K. 2016. Nanosecond laser milling of the amorphous alloy Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5. Presented at: 11 th International Conference on Multi-Material Micro Manufacture (4M2016), co-organised with 10th International Workshop on Microfactories (IWMF2016), Lyngby, Denmark,, 13-15 September 2016.

Research

  • Formulation, development and application of new strategies and techniques for structure determination from powder X-ray diffraction data.
  • Chemistry and physics of solid inclusion compounds, focusing on incommensurate structural properties, dynamic properties, chemical properties, crystal growth processes and the development of applications of these materials.
  • Molecular motion, disorder and phase transitions in crystalline solids, with particular interest in understanding dynamics of hydrogen bonding arrangements using solid state NMR techniques.
  • Fundamentals of crystallization processes and polymorphism.

The research activities of the group of Professor Harris are focused in two main directions within the general area of the Physical Chemistry of Solids.

First, we have a vigorous research programme focused on the formulation, development and application of new techniques and strategies for carrying out crystal structure determination directly from powder X-ray diffraction data, with particular emphasis on overcoming the specific challenges encountered for organic molecular materials. Our research in this area is focused on advancing fundamentals of the direct-space strategy for structure solution, which is currently based on the use of genetic algorithm search techniques. In addition to fundamental computational developments in this area, we are also applying our new techniques to tackle structural problems in a range of areas of solid state and materials sciences, including pharmaceuticals, pigments, reactive crystalline solids, electroluminescent materials, and materials of interest in structural biology.

Second, we are currently engaged in several research projects focused on understanding fundamental structural, dynamic and chemical properties of molecular solids, and the inter-relationships between these properties, particularly through studies aimed at unravelling the complex nature of solid inclusion compounds. Early research by the group in this area was focused on understanding a range of structural and dynamic aspects of one-dimensional inclusion compounds, typified by urea inclusion compounds. While continuing to advance these aspects, recent research has focused increasingly on exploiting our fundamental understanding of these materials in order to explore properties of a more applied nature, including crystal growth processes, transport processes, X-ray dichroism, and the development of strategies for direct experimental determination of intermolecular interaction energies. Other topics of active interest include dynamics of hydrogen bonding arrangements in solids, molecular quasicrystals, and fundamentals of polymorphism and crystallization processes in organic solids.

Teaching

CH3101 Foundations of Physical Chemistry

CH3205 Thermodynamics and Kinetics

CH3307 Advanced Spectroscopy and Diffraction

CH3410 Advanced Magnetic Resonance

Details of modules can be found in course finder.

Biography

Career:

BSc, University of St Andrews (1985)

PhD,  University of Cambridge (1988, Supervisor: Sir John Meurig Thomas, FRS)

Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, University of St Andrews (1988 - 1993)

Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, University College London (1993 - 1995)

Professor of Structural Chemistry, University of Birmingham (1995 -  2003)

Distinguished Research Professor, Cardiff University (2003 - present)

Other Appointments:

Nuffield Foundation Science Research Fellow (1995/6)

Visiting Professor, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain (1997 and 1999)

Visiting Professor, National Science Council of Taiwan (1998)

Visiting Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (2000)

Patrick Lecturer, Kansas State University, USA (2003)

Visiting Professor, University of Bordeaux, France (2006/7 and 2008/9)

Visiting Professor, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (2008)

Visiting Professor, Kyoto University, Japan (2011)

Honours and awards

Meldola Medal (1991; Royal Society of Chemistry)

Marlow Medal (1996; Royal Society of Chemistry)

Philips Prize in Physical Crystallography (1997; British Crystallographic Association and Institute of Physics)

Corday-Morgan Medal (1999; Royal Society of Chemistry)

Structural Chemistry Medal (2001; Royal Society of Chemistry)

Tilden Medal (2007/8; Royal Society of Chemistry)

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2008)

Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2011)

Member of Academia Europaea (2013)