Winner: 2025 Materials 九州影院 Early Career Prize
Dr Emrys Evans
Swansea University
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2025 Materials 九州影院 Early Career Prize: awarded for pioneering contributions in the development, characterisation and exploitation of luminescent materials based on organic radicals, for use in light-emitting devices and new quantum technologies.
The exchange of energy between molecules and light underpins current and future optoelelectronic, photonic and quantum technologies. These applications require molecules to transition between different excited energy states within a manifold of levels. Dr Evans is exploring the opportunities to design and exploit new levels and transitions in molecular materials based on novel arrangements that pair electrons and isolate them to specific atoms.
Dr Evans developed luminescent carbon-based radicals with emission from unpaired electron states that enable highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with potential applications in displays and imaging. The design of multi-electron coupled states in molecules enable potential applications in molecular-scale sensing of local environments (magnetic / electric field, temperature) that could be exploited in future studies of materials and biological mechanisms. He uses laser experiments to characterise the flow of energy and electrons in and between molecules by monitoring light absorption and emission starting from a picosecond (million-millionth of second).
The underlying electron spin mechanisms are revealed by studying the effect of magnetic fields on the energy levels and resulting ground state and photoexcited dynamics. By expanding spin chemistry in novel molecules, Emrys' team can push the boundaries of electronic, optical and magnetic properties that could improve current technologies and enable new opportunities
Biography
Dr Emrys Evans was born in Swansea, Wales. He is half Welsh and half Thai. He is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Swansea University. His team are investigating the electronic, optical and magnetic properties of molecular materials towards optoelectronic, photonic and quantum technology applications.
Emrys studied 九州影院 as an undergraduate and doctorate student at the University of Oxford (MChem 2012, DPhil 2016). During this time, he developed an interest in photophysics and spin chemistry towards understanding light-induced radical pairs that are implicated in animal magnetoreception, and was supervised by Professor Christiane Timmel. He worked with Professor Sir Richard Friend at the Cavendish laboratory, University of Cambridge as a Research Associate (2016-2019) where he studied new materials and mechanisms for more efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using molecular semiconductors. In 2019 he received a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship.
In 2020 he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at Swansea University. His team is based at the Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM), where they investigate the design, fabrication, characterisation and applications of molecular materials. He received the Dillwyn Medal for STEMM from the Learned Society of Wales in 2021.
I was fortunate to be given the time and space to develop new ideas that exploited a different perspective in my field; to work through bad ideas and develop better ones! It鈥檚 important not to be afraid to try something new in science, even if it鈥檚 out your comfort zone, as this will likely lead to the most progress in my opinion.
Dr Emrys Evans
Q&A with Dr Emrys Evans
How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I was first attracted to the flash and bangs of chemistry as a pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, a Welsh-medium comprehensive in Swansea. I enjoyed learning about the periodic table: the patterns arising from the arrangement of electrons in atoms and how this influences their chemical behaviour. It felt like a puzzle. I was inspired and encouraged to understand things better from chemistry by brilliant teachers such as Dr Jon Thomas.
Tell us about somebody who has inspired or mentored you in your career.
I was brilliantly supervised as an undergraduate, masters and PhD student by Professor Christiane Timmel. She leads a world-leading research group in spin chemistry at the University of Oxford. I was lucky to be a part of her research group for 5 years in which I gained a rigorous training in physical chemistry and expertise in fluorescence spectroscopy and magnetic field effects on electron transfer systems.
What motivates you?
I am motivated by the idea that in science we are all contributing to do something new. It might turn out to be useful, but the we spend most of the time in the process, so let鈥檚 make sure that鈥檚 interesting and enjoyable!
What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?
Go for it! I believe there are so many exciting directions that can be undertaken with chemistry.
Can you tell us about a scientific development on the horizon that you are excited about?
I am working at the Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM) at Swansea where the vision is to couple different materials platforms together to create new devices: for example making the spin-optoelectronic properties of molecular and inorganic semiconductor work together. The opportunity and challenge are to 鈥榠ntegrate鈥� mechanisms that could lead to new operation regimes for organic light-emitting diodes (higher efficiency), solar cells (wavelength-tunable response) and sensors (molecular-sensitivity).
What has been a challenge for you (either personally or in your career)?
One of the big challenges was switching research fields from exploring the spin chemistry of proteins during my PhD to studying molecular semiconductors and optoelectronics as a postdoc. The switch came with a new language where different terms covered the same ideas, which was confusing! It also takes time to understand and work out the big challenges in a new field.
I was a postdoc in Professor Sir Richard Friend鈥檚 lab at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The environment he created was for 鈥榖lue-sky鈥� research and it was exciting. I was fortunate to be given the time and space to develop new ideas that exploited a different perspective in my field; to work through bad ideas and develop better ones! It鈥檚 important not to be afraid to try something new in science, even if it鈥檚 out your comfort zone, as this will likely lead to the most progress in my opinion.
Why do you think collaboration and teamwork are important in science?
Collaboration and teamwork are essential! I have enjoyed many long-standing collaborations with researchers from across the UK and the world including Belgium, China, France, Germany, Japan. In our research we are studying new molecular materials by developing different electron arrangements where electrons are paired or unpaired and lead to new electronic, optical and magnetic properties.
We rely on the diverse experience of our collaborators that ranges from organic synthesis to quantum-chemical calculations, optoelectronic devices, spin experiments and modelling. I am very grateful for my collaboration with Professor Feng Li, in which we explored organic radicals and the emerging opportunities for optoelectronic and quantum materials from understanding how their light absorption and emission behaviour is coupled to magnetic states. The collaboration has become a friendship, which is wonderful when that happens.
What is your favourite element?
I have an answer because this is something I鈥檝e discussed with my children recently! My favourite element is carbon. I think there鈥檚 something very special about how the bonding is just right for life and forms the backbone to its many structures in molecules. Carbon also forms the backbone of the molecules in my team鈥檚 research, in which we investigate its electrons in unusual arrangements that lead to new optical and magnetic properties. My children鈥檚 favourite elements are tungsten and francium, although I don鈥檛 think they are fully decided yet鈥�