Stuart Wilkins

Stuart obtained a M.Sci. in 1999 and a Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Durham, UK.  He then worked as a post-doc at the Institute for Trans-Uranium Elements in Karlsruhe, Germany while at the same time working as a visiting scientist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. In 2005 he started at the ESRF as a staff scientist on beamline ID20 before leaving in 2006 to start as an assistant physicist at Brookhaven National Lab. Stuart was awarded the D. A. Wright prize at the University of Durham for his thesis work and in 2008 was awarded the ESRF Young Scientist Award.

His research is currently focused on soft x-ray scattering studies of strongly correlated systems. Transition metal oxides are typical strongly correlated electron systems in which interactions determine the electronic properties. Coulomb repulsion between the d-electrons of the transition metal ions tends to localize the electrons at atomic lattice sites whereas hybridization within the metal - oxygen bond causes delocalization. These very subtle balances make transition metal oxides excellent candidates for studying metal-insulator transitions, orbital ordering, spin orbiting and lattice effects. Such systems are characterized by large numbers of competing, and complex, ground states, and by extreme sensitivity to perturbations. As a result, they exhibit many remarkable, and potentially useful, properties.