Hobday Lab
We are a young, dynamic group working at the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. Tacking issues of heating and cooling through understanding the structural properties of materials via experimental and computational methods.
The Hobday Group uses a wide range of physical and computational techniques including
- High-pressure crystallography
- High-pressure differential scanning calorimetry
- Computational chemistry
This technique allows us to probe the response of a material to an external force. We can understand the strength of molecular interactions, mechanical properties and see new phases of materials.
This technique allows us to measure heat flow under various pressure and temperature conditions to understand how solid-state refrigerants work.
We use the full scale of computational techniques available to us: from molecular mechanics to higher levels of theory such as density functional theory. This allows us to tackle specific challenges of materials chemistry.
Team
CHECK OUR TEAM
Claire L Hobday
Group Leader
Joshua Levinsky
PDRA 2022-2026
Phillippa Partridge
PhD student 2021-2026
Cecilia Hong
PhD student 2022-2026
Saabir Petker
PhD student 2022-2027
David Coventry
PhD student 2023-2027
Rong Wei
PhD student 2024-2028
Jordan James
PhD student 2025-2029| Previous Team Members | ||
|---|---|---|
| Shivani Grover | PDRA | 2022-2025 |
| Kate Mitchell | MRes | 2022-2024 |
| Sarah Scripps | MChem | 2022-2023 |
| Shroq Alzadjali | PGT MSc | 2022-2023 |
| Colin Tang | BSc | 2021-2022 |
| James Chi | PGT MSc | 2021-2022 |
| Lachlan Bark | MChem | 2020-2021 |
| Rachel Hammond | BSc | 2020-2021 |
| Shumin Chang | PGT MSc | 2020-2021 |
| Lauren Byrne | EPSRC Vacation Scholar | 2021 |
| Chris Donnelly | MChem | 2019-2020 |
| Jiaying Wang | PGT MSc | 2019-2020 |
| Charlie Nason | Carnegie Vacation Scholar | 2019 |
| Cecilia Hong | EPSRC Vacation Scholar | 2019 |
Claire Hobday
Claire hails from Cumbernauld, Scotland and started her chemistry career at the University of Strathclyde with an MChem degree. During this time she had an Erasmus year in Grenoble , a year in industry at Technologie Servier and completed her final year research project under the supervision of Dr Alan Kennedy. All of these factors gave her a strong influence of the field structural chemistry, and she then pursued a PhD at the University of Edinburgh under Dr Stephen Moggach. Claire's PhD focused on using crystallography and simulation to understand the mechanical properties and adsorption properties of metal-organic frameworks. Claire then wanted more experience in simulation so after her PhD, she began postdoctoral work with Prof Tina Düren at the University of Bath. Here, Claire used simulation to understand flexibility in MOFs and zeolites. Claire moved back to Edinburgh in 2019 to begin her independent academic career as a Christina Miller fellow, and was appointed as a Chancellor's Fellow in 2021 and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in 2022. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2024.
Outside of work, Claire is a mother to a young son and enjoys walking in the hills (photo from Grey Mares Tail, Moffat), listening to and playing music, and cooking.
Career Pathway
- Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh: 2024 - now
- UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, University of Edinburgh: 2022 - now
- Chancellor's Fellow, University of Edinburgh: 2021 - now
- Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Bath: 2017 - 2019
- PhD Chemistry, University of Edinburgh: 2013 - 2017
- MChem Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde: 2008 - 2013
- Sir Fraser and Norma Stoddart Prize 2018
- British Crystallographic Association Durwand Cruickshank Prize 2018
- CCDC Chemical Crystallography Prize for Younger Scientists 2018
Awards