At the recent European Workshop of Photocathodes for Accelerator Applications (EWPAA) held at the Paul-Scherrer-Institut in Villigen, Switzerland, a doctoral student sponsored by ASTeC has been awarded the Young Scientist of the Meeting prize. Victor Chang, who is studying under Prof Nic Harrison in the Materials Chemistry Department at Imperial College, won the award for his work on modelling photocathode materials using density functional theory (DFT).
Victor's studies have been concerned with the first principles modelling of photoemission from metal, metal oxide and alloy materials for use as photocathodes in accelerator applications. The idea behind his work is to identify materials systems which can then be evaluated experimentally by other members of the ASTeC photocathode research team and which might eventually lead to electron sources with higher brightness. His work has given rise to three scientific papers so far, with hopefully more to come in the future. Also, this meeting marked the second time Victor has presented his work at this workshop, having also done so at the previous meeting at HZB Berlin, Germany in 2017.
Victor was awarded his prize by Dr Romain Ganter, the workshop Chair, and also received the gift of a white Cuckoo Clock to symbolise the fact that the meeting was held in Switzerland.
