Prof. Alice Thorneywork

I am an Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry and Royal Society University Research Fellow  at the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford. I am also Tutorial Fellow in Physical Chemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford. 

My research  focus is soft matter physics, and in particular, exploiting the properties of soft condensed matter- in particular, its slowness and ‘seeability’- to build novel experimental model systems at the micro and nanoscale.  These model systems provide unique insight into a range of fundamental problems, with a current focus on understanding molecular fluctuations and transport processes. 

I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemistry and DPhil in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at Christ Church, University of Oxford.   Here, my doctoral work in the group of Prof. Roel Dullens focused on the use of colloidal model hard sphere systems to probe the structure, dynamics and phase behaviour of two-dimensional materials. This work led to me receiving the 2019 RSC Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics Group (SMTG) Young Scientist Award. In 2016, I moved to the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge first as a postdoc in the group of Prof. Ulrich Keyser, before beginning my independent research career in the department as an Oppenheimer Research Fellow (2018-2021) and, from 2021, a Royal Society University Research Fellow.

Email: alice.thorneywork (at) chem.ox.ac.uk