Researcher

Associate Professor Terry James Frankcombe

My Expertise

Chemistry, quantum mechanics, hydrogen storage, atomic interactions, quantum chemistry, gas-surface modelling, crystalline materials modelling

Fields of Research (FoR)

Catalysis and Mechanisms of Reactions, Atomic and Molecular Physics, Quantum Chemistry, Condensed Matter Modelling and Density Functional Theory, Physical Chemistry of Materials, Numerical and Computational Mathematics not elsewhere classified

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Biography

PhD scholarships ($35,000 per year) are available for high-achieving students (with H1/High Distinction in UG and/or Masters by Research) in theoretical/computational chemistry or relevant sciences under my supervision. If you are interested contact me at t.frankcombe@adfa.edu.au.


Dr Terry Frankcombe is an Associate Professor in the School of Science at UNSW Canberra.

I currently lead a research group investigating a variety of phenomena...view more

PhD scholarships ($35,000 per year) are available for high-achieving students (with H1/High Distinction in UG and/or Masters by Research) in theoretical/computational chemistry or relevant sciences under my supervision. If you are interested contact me at t.frankcombe@adfa.edu.au.


Dr Terry Frankcombe is an Associate Professor in the School of Science at UNSW Canberra.

I currently lead a research group investigating a variety of phenomena within physical chemistry, with a focus on the influence of energetics/energy surfaces on dynamical properties. I also collaborate on investigations of dielectric materials, interpreting wave functions and interfacial properties of graphene.

I completed my PhD in 2001 at the University of Queensland, having received a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a University Medal from the Australian National University in 1997. I undertook a series of postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Queensland (2002-2003), Universiteit Leiden (Netherlands, 2004-2006), Göteborgs Universitet (Sweden, 2007, as a Marie Curie Fellow) and the Australian National University (2008-2010), before being awarded an ARC Future Fellowship undertaken at ANU (2011-2014). I also held the position of Associate Director of the National Youth Science Forum (a non-research position) from December 2010 to March 2011.

Having been appointed as a Senior Lecturer in what was then known as PEMS in 2015, I was appointed as Associate Professor at the renamed School of Science in 2019.

My research group is a member group of the QDN - Quantum Dynamics Network.


My Research Activities

Terry's research interests can be broadly described as theoretical and computational chemical physics.  He currently has active research projects spanning everything from small molecule quantum dynamics to condensed matter modelling:

  • Quantum dynamics method development
  • Gas-surface potential energy surfaces and modelling
  • Solid state colossal permittivity materials
  • Photosynthesis
  • Interstellar chemistry
  • Interpreting ab initio wave functions

Some currently available PhD research projects are listed below.


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

I currently have a range of projects available for pursuing a PhD degree.  Some suggested topics are listed here:

  • Electron-hole pair effects in gas-surface reactions

  • Gas-surface reactivity modelling leveraging on the fly dynamics
  • Formaldehyde formation in interstellar space

  • Photosynthetic mechanisms in plants
  • Quantum-classical modelling of reactions
  • On-the-fly quantum dynamics
  • QM/MM descriptions of solids with fragmentation
  • Neighbour searching in high-dimensional spaces

  • Quantum reaction rate theory
  • Interface diffusion in graphene systems

Many of these projects involve some level of mathematical analysis, scientific programming and high performance computing.

Prospective students are welcome to propose their own projects that fit broadly within my research field.


Currently supervising

  • Ms Lilit Jacob, dielectric materials
  • Ms Sonja Frost, hydrogen storage

My Teaching

Mathematics 1B, Engineering Mathematics 2B

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Location

Room 135 PEMS South (Bldg 26) School of Science, UNSW Canberra, Australian Defence Force Academy, PO Box 7916, Canberra BC ACT 2610, AUSTRALIA

Contact

+61 2 5114 5024
0417163509