Bill David

Bill David
David in 2016
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
AwardsJohn B Goodenough Award
Scientific career
Institutions
ThesisStructural phase transitions in ferroic ABO4 crystals (1981)

William I. F. David FRS[1] is a professor of Materials Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford,[2] an STFC Senior Fellow at the ISIS neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford.[3]

Education

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David was educated at St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he read Physics as an undergraduate student. He completed his postgraduate work in the Clarendon Laboratory and was awarded his DPhil degree from the University of Oxford in 1981[4] for research supervised by Anthony Michael Glazer.[5] Following his PhD, he was a postdoctoral researcher supervised by John B. Goodenough in Oxford.[6]

Research

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David has made significant contributions to the development of neutron diffraction and X-ray powder diffraction. Highlights include the comprehensive crystal-structure analysis of C60 (Buckminsterfullerene),[7] and the accelerated determination of molecular crystal structures through his computer program, DASH.[8] His theoretical work is based on the application of Bayesian probability theory in areas ranging from structural incompleteness to parametric data analysis.[1]

David's materials focus is in energy storage, beginning with his research on lithium battery cathodes. More recently, he has worked on lightweight hydrogen storage materials[9][10] such as reversible imide-amide systems.[11] Following his discovery of a new family of ammonia-decomposition catalysts, his main energy research interests are in materials that facilitate the safe and effective utilisation of ammonia as an energy vector.[1]

Awards and honours

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Bill's awards include the Institute of Physics C. V. Boys Prize (1990), the inaugural British Crystallographic Association Prize (2002), the European Society for Applied Physical Chemistry Prize (2006), one of three William Lawrence Bragg Lecture Awards (2013) marking the centenary of the discovery of X-ray diffraction, and the John B Goodenough Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in 2015 recognising exceptional and sustained contributions to materials chemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2016.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Anon (2016). "Professor William David FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 September 2015)

  2. ^ "Professor Bill David FRS". Oxford: University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 15 September 2015.
  3. ^ "W I F (Bill) David MA, DPhil: Fellow by Special Election in Physics". Oxford: University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016.
  4. ^ David, William I. F. (1981). Structural phase transitions in ferroic ABO4 crystals (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 863473643.
  5. ^ "Crystallography tree: William I.F. David, Ph.D., MA". academictree.org. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016.
  6. ^ Thackeray, M.M.; David, W.I.F.; Bruce, P.G.; Goodenough, J.B. (1983). "Lithium insertion into manganese spinels". Materials Research Bulletin. 18 (4): 461–472. doi:10.1016/0025-5408(83)90138-1.
  7. ^ David, William I. F.; Ibberson, Richard M.; Matthewman, Judy C.; Prassides, Kosmas; Dennis, T. John S.; Hare, Jonathan P.; Kroto, Harold W.; Taylor, Roger; Walton, David R. M. (1991). "Crystal structure and bonding of ordered C60". Nature. 353 (6340): 147–149. Bibcode:1991Natur.353..147D. doi:10.1038/353147a0. S2CID 4345630.
  8. ^ David, William I. F.; Shankland, Kenneth; van de Streek, Jacco; Pidcock, Elna; Motherwell, W. D. Samuel; Cole, Jason C. (2006). "DASH: a program for crystal structure determination from powder diffraction data". Journal of Applied Crystallography. 39 (6): 910–915. doi:10.1107/S0021889806042117.
  9. ^ Xiong, Zhitao; Yong, Chaw Keong; Wu, Guotao; Chen, Ping; Shaw, Wendy; Karkamkar, Abhi; Autrey, Thomas; Jones, Martin Owen; Johnson, Simon R.; Edwards, Peter P.; David, William I. F. (2007). "High-capacity hydrogen storage in lithium and sodium amidoboranes". Nature Materials. 7 (2): 138–141. Bibcode:2008NatMa...7..138X. doi:10.1038/nmat2081. PMID 18157135.
  10. ^ Edwards, P.P.; Kuznetsov, V.L.; David, W.I.F.; Brandon, N.P. (2008). "Hydrogen and fuel cells: Towards a sustainable energy future". Energy Policy. 36 (12): 4356–4362. Bibcode:2008EnPol..36.4356E. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2008.09.036.
  11. ^ David, William I. F.; Jones, Martin O.; Gregory, Duncan H.; Jewell, Catherine M.; Johnson, Simon R.; Walton, Allan; Edwards, Peter P. (2007). "A Mechanism for Non-stoichiometry in the Lithium Amide/Lithium Imide Hydrogen Storage Reaction". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 129 (6): 1594–1601. doi:10.1021/ja066016s. PMID 17243680.