Imperial PhD student awarded prestigious thermodynamics prize

Dr Fabian Thiemann receiving the award from Professor Tim Mays

Fabian Thiemann received the Christopher Wormald Prize for his graduate thesis in the field of thermodynamics.

The Christopher Wormald Award is offered in honour of Christopher J. Wormald, recognising his outstanding contribution to the Thermodynamics Conference Series. The prize is awarded on the basis of the quality and originality of the work entered and given only once every two years.

“I feel very honoured to have been awarded this prestigious prize and proud that our work has been received in such a positive way by the community." Dr Fabian Thiemann Department of Chemical Engineering

Dr Thiemann received the award for his thesis titled ‘Properties of Low-Dimensional Materials Explored with Machine Learning Potentials’. His PhD focused on the development and application of machine learning approaches to better understand carbon and boron-nitride materials and their interaction with water. He has had four papers published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nano Letters, and ACS Nano, all of which represent significant advances in the field.

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Commenting on his award, Fabian said: “I feel very honoured to have been awarded this prestigious prize and proud that our work has been received in such a positive way by the community. I am convinced there is still much more to learn about low-dimensional materials and hope to contribute to the field further in the future. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, collaborators, and all the mentors I had throughout my PhD without whose patience and help this would not have happened.”

Professor Erich Muller, his PhD supervisor, said: “The Wormald prize is the premier award in the field of Thermodynamics and recognises outstanding rising stars. All of previous winners have lived to this expectation, becoming leading academics and/or holding key industrial positions.

Fabian is a worthy recipient of the prize – one of the brightest and most capable researchers I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Fabian’s work stands out in terms of rigour and deep physical insight he extracts from his simulations. One of the hallmarks of his research is his ability to digest enormous amounts of complex simulation data and arrive at simple and intuitive physical insights on the behaviour of complex materials systems.”