Close
Prof Claire Carmalt
Professor of Inorganic Chemistry
Dept of Chemistry
Faculty of Maths & Physical Sciences
- Joined UCL
- 1st Oct 2001
Research summary
My research group is multidisciplinary and currently consists of 3 postdocs, 9 PhD students and 4 masters students. Our research focusses on developing innovative new routes to technologically important inorganic materials including the synthesis of novel molecular precursors, deposition of films using chemical vapour, spray and atomic layer deposition, formation of superhydrophobic surfaces and deposition of transparent conducting oxide and photocatalytic thin films. Research in the group is often funded by industry (PhD studentships, innovateUK, KTP etc) and currently involves development of materials and routes towards a number of industrial applications involving crystal growth, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) and superhydrophobic (SH) paints. We have a strong interest in the synthesis and characterisation of novel molecular precursors for use in the deposition of thin films of materials especially metal oxides. The aim is to develop new highly volatile, non-toxic precursors, which are then used to grown thin films. The group is involved in research in Aerosol Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition (AACVD) including scale up development for industrial applications and combinatorial CVD. The development of transparent conducting oxides, photocatalysts and superhydrophobic paints are of key interest.
Teaching summary
Education
- University College London
- Other Postgraduate qualification (including professional), ATQ09 - Other UK accreditation or qualification in teaching in the higher education sector | 2001
- University of Newcastle upon Tyne
- Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 1995
- University of Newcastle upon Tyne
- First Degree, Bachelor of Science (Honours) | 1992
Biography
Claire Carmalt graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne with a first-class honours degree in chemistry in 1992. She remained at Newcastle to do her PhD with Dr Nick Norman on 'Synthetic and structural studies involving the heavier elements of groups 13 and 15'. She then spent just over two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Science and Technology Center, University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Professors Alan Cowley FRS and Mike White. Her postdoctoral work, which involved the synthesis of novel precursors for thin film growth, stimulated her interest in materials chemistry. In 1997, she was awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship and she moved to University College London. She started a lectureship at UCL in 2001 and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2002, Reader in 2004 and Professor in 2009. She was Head of the Inorganic & Materials Section in the department from 2010-2016 and Vice-Dean(Education), for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences faculty at UCL. In 2016 she became the 18th Head of Department for Chemistry and the first woman appointed to the position. In 2021 she received a One UCL Leadership Award for Outstanding Contribution. She has also been awarded the RSC 2000 Meldola Medal and Prize and the RSC 2019 Applied Inorganic Chemistry Award for her work in materials chemistry.