Roy L. Johnston
Position: Deputy Head of School & Professor of Computational Chemistry
Office: Haworth 204n
School of Chemistry,
University of Birmingham,
Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT.
+44 (0)121 414 7477
+44 (0)121 414 4403
r.l.johnston@bham.ac.uk
Conference Announcement
Research Area: Theoretical Chemistry 
Research Summary
1. Biologically-Inspired Computational Chemistry
-
Ant Colony Optimization
Artificial Neural Networks
Artificial Immune Systems
Elemental Clusters
Nanoalloys
Oxide Nanoparticles
Birmingham Cluster Web
3. Model Studies of Protein Folding
5. Theoretical Structural Chemistry
Contributor to RSC Book:
The Age of the Molecule
Author of Book:
Atomic and Molecular Clusters
Author of Dalton Perspective:
Evolving better nanoparticles: Genetic algorithms for optimising cluster geometries
Editor of Volume:
Applications of Evolutionary Computation in Chemistry (Structure & Bonding, Volume 110).
Co-editor of Volume:
Nanoalloys: From Theory to Application (Faraday Discussions, Volume 138).
Co-author of Review:
Nanoalloys: From Theory to Applications of Alloy Clusters and Nanoparticles
(Chem. Rev. 2008, 108, 845-910.)
Local Research Links
Current Research Grants
- EPSRC Grant (EP/G070326/1) "Towards an Atomic-scale Understanding of the 3D Structure of Size-selected Clusters on Surfaces" (2009-13) - with Dr Ziyou Li & Prof. Richard E. Palmer (Nanoscale Physics, Birmingham) and Prof. Jun Yuan (Physics, York).
- EPSRC Programme Grant (EP/I001352/1) "Simulation of Self-Assembly" (2010-15) - with Prof. Daan Frenkel, Prof. David Wales & Dr Mark Miller (Chemistry, Cambridge) and Dr Jonathan Doye (Chemistry, Oxford).
- EPSRC Critical Mass Grant (EP/J010804/1) "TOUCAN: TOwards an Understanding of CAtalysis on Nanoalloys" (2012-17) - with Dr Gabor Csanyi and Prof. David Wales (Cambridge), Dr Francesca Baletto (Kings College London), Dr Jon Doye (Oxford) and Prof. Chris. Pickard (University College London).
- Member of the EPSRC-funded UK Materials Chemistry HPC Consortium - coordinated by Prof. Richard Catlow and Dr. Scott Woodley (Chemistry, University College London).
European
- COST Action MP0903 "NANOALLOY - Nanoalloys as Advanced Materials: From Structure to Properties and Applications" (2010-14). Vice Chair and Working Group Leader.
- Host of Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow [Dr Ivailo Atanasov] (PIEF-GA-2010-272790) "PhDBiNA: Computing Phase Diagrams of Binary Nanoalloys" (2011-13).
- HPC-Europa2 Transnational Access Programme - cpu allocations and travel funds for collaborations with: R. Ferrando (Genoa, Italy); A. Fortunelli (Pisa, Italy); J. Akola (Tempere, Finland); H. Arslan (Zonguldac, Turkey); J. C. Schoen (Stuttgart, Germany).
Co-workers and Collaborators
Johnston group (December 2012)
Johnston group (2009)
Johnston group (2004)
Johnston and Knowles groups (1997)
Current Group Members
- Dr Ivailo Atanasov (Marie Curie Intra-European Research Fellow)
- Dr Mark Oakley (PDRA)
- Jack Davis (1st year PhD)
- Chris Heard (3rd year PhD)
- Paul Jennings (3rd year PhD) [DTC in Hydrogen, Fuel Cells - joint with Chem. Eng. and Biosciences]
- Calum Sloan (2nd year PhD)
- Lewis Smeeton (2nd year PhD)
Group Meetings
Former Group Members
- Dr Andy Bennett [PhD 2009]
- Dr Eugene Cheung [PDRA 2003-06]
- Dr Hazel Cox [PDRA 1994-95] (Senior Lecturer, University of Sussex)
- Dr Graham Cox [PhD 2007] (Tessella Support Services plc)
- Dr Ben Curley [PhD 2008]
- Dr Richard Gilham [PhD 2005] (Metereological Office)
- Dr Scott Habershon [PhD 2004] (Assistant Professor, University of Warwick)
- Ramli Ismail [PhD 2013] (Lecturer, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia)
- Dr Lesley Lloyd [PhD 1999, PDRA 2002-05]
- Dr Andy Logsdail [MRes 2008, PhD 2012] (Postdoctoral Fellow, University College London)
- Dr Tom Mortimer-Jones [PhD 2005]
- Dr Oliver Paz Borbon [PhD 2009] (Postdoctoral Fellow, Chalmers University, Gothenberg, Sweden)
- Faye Pittaway [MRes 2007]
- Dr Chris Roberts [PhD 2001] (Astra Zeneca)
- Dr Gareth Rylance [PhD 2007] (Tessella Support Services plc)
- Dr Sumet Sakulsermsuk [PhD 2010]
- Dr Jose Samaniego-Reyna [PhD 2002]
- Dr Nicola Toto [PhD 2007]
- Dr Dung Trung Tran [PhD 2010] (Postdoctoral Fellow, Trondheim University, Norway)
- Dr Giles Turner [PhD 2002] (Tessella Support Services plc)
- Dr Julia Uppenbrink [PDRA 1992-93]
- Dr Paul West [PhD 2013]
- Dr Nick Wilson [PhD 2000] (Physical and Life Sciences Research Group, Fujitsu)
Graduation Pictures
Giles Turner (2002)
Graham Cox and Gareth Rylance (2007)
Oliver Paz-Borbon (2009)
Past Visitors
- Sven Heiles (Technical University Darmstadt, Germany) [October 2010-March 2011]
- Sara Nunez (University of Valladolid, Spain) [May-August 2009]
- Dr Haydar Arslan (Zonguldak University, Turkey) [June-August 2008; March 2011; July-September 2011]
- Abhishek Gupta (Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India) [May-July 2007]
- Dr Fuyi Chen (Northwestern Polytechnic University, Xian, China) [July 2006-June 2008]
- Dr Alvaro Posada-Amarillas & Dr Dora Borbon-Gonzalez (University of Sonora, Mexico) [August 2005-January 2006]
- Freddy Fernandez Guimaraes (UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil) [August 2000-January 2001]
Collaborators at the University of Birmingham
External Collaborators
- Dr Jadson Belchior
(Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil)
- Dr Yu Chen (University of Strathclyde)
- Dr Hazel Cox (University of Sussex)
- Professor Riccardo Ferrando (University of Genoa, Italy)
- Professor Alessandro Fortunelli (CNR, Pisa, Italy)
- Professor Kenneth Harris (Cardiff University)
- Professor Julius Jellinek(Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
- Professor Tamiki Komatsuzaki (Hokkaido University, Japan)
- Dr Alvaro Posada Amarillas (Universidad de Sonora, Mexico)
- Professor Said Salhi (University of Kent)
- Professor Christian Schoen (Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany)
- Professor Alexander V. Soldatov (Rostov State University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia)
- Professor Stefan Vajda (Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
Teaching
- CHM2S6 - Introductory Computational Chemistry (Molecular Mechanics)
- CHM3E4 - Advanced Computational Chemistry (Computer Simulation)
- CHM4M3-I - Metal Clusters & Nanoalloys
- CHM4M3-II - Symmetry & Spectroscopy of Polyatomic Molecules
Administration
Organization of Conferences etc.
- Co-organizer of
Royal Society Discussion Meeting The Metal-non-metal Transition in Macroscopic and
Microscopic Systems
(5-6 March 1997).
- Co-editor of the proceedings of the above meeting
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London 1998, 356, 1-278.
- Organizer of
CCP5 Annual Meeting 1999 Simulation of Clusters and Interfaces (6-8 September 1999).
- Director of
RSC Theoretical Chemistry Group - Theoretical Chemistry Summer School 2000:
Theory and Simulation of Clusters and Nanoparticles
(29 August - 6 September 2000)
- Co-organizer of RSC-TCG/CCP5 Meeting
Modelling of
Materials: Atomistic and Ab Initio Approaches Mansfield College,
Oxford (9-10 April 2003).
- Organizer of meeting Theoretical and Experimental Inorganic Chemistry (A meeting to celebrate the 60th birthday of Professor D. Michael P. Mingos, FRS) St. Edmund Hall, Oxford (21 August 2004). (Photo)
- Chair of Faraday Discussion 138: Nanoalloys - From Theory to Applications University of Birmingham (3-5 September 2007).
- Co-chair of
BEAR Postgraduate Research Computing Conference 2010, 2011, 2012
University of Birmingham.
- Co-organiser of COST Action "NANOALLOY" Working Group Meeting "Nanoalloy Phase Diagrams", Brno, Czech Republic, 2-3 April 2012.
Some Chemistry Links
Theory and Simulation of Clusters and Nanoparticles
Publications