DrSean Collins

I am fascinated by how atomic and molecular structure and bonding in the solid state determines how materials behave, especially how they interact with light and how other molecules and ions move into and through materials. Often the junction between two pieces or tiny variations in arrangements of atoms and molecules (so called defects) play an out-sized role in these properties. In my research, I seek to answer these questions drawing on large datasets, requiring the use of computer-based approaches like scripting, computer vision, compressed sensing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence approaches.

I started in science in the United States, working as an undergraduate summer student at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) where I studied the internal structure of atmospheric aerosols, a source of uncertainty in underrstanding climate change. As an undergraduate student in chemistry at the University of Michigan, I also joined research on inorganic semiconductors for solar fuels as well as battery materials. In 2012, I came to the UK as a Gates Cambridge Scholar to pursue my PhD in Materials Science at the University of Cambridge, developing ways to measure the optical properties of metal nanoparticles using electron microscopy. Since my PhD, I have focused more and more on molecular materials where there is a tremendous amount to learn about how microscopic structure defines function. By developing new ways to measure, my group is opening new ways to see this otherwise hidden nano-world of within metal–organic frameworks, polymers, molecular crystals, and hybrid materials like halide perovskites.

I am a member of SuperSTEM, the UK’s National Research Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy, and I also work regularly with the electron Physical Sciences Imaging Centre (ePSIC, Diamond Light Source).