THOMAS YOUNG CENTRE:
THE LONDON CENTRE FOR THEORY AND SIMULATION OF MATERIALS
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ABOUT THE THOMAS YOUNG CENTRE
The Thomas Young Centre (TYC) is an interdisciplinary community of London research groups working to address challenges of society and industry through materials modelling and the theory and simulation of materials. With about 80 participating groups, and ambitious programmes of events and graduate courses, we are a supportive community for research students and young researchers, a source of new collaborations for visiting scientists, and a long-term partner for business and government.
The TYC is financially supported by three large London Colleges: Imperial College, King's College, and UCL (University College London). Research groups from QMUL (Queen Mary University London) and RHUL (Royal Holloway University London) also participate. The academic departments involved include physics, materials, chemistry, earth sciences, biology, and several branches of engineering. TYC has a partnership with the National Physical Laboratory, a world-leading centre for the development and application of accurate measurement standards for science and technology.
Our research makes a real difference to the world: take a look at our Research pages and our Science Highights to find out more. Almost every aspect of modern life involves materials and benefits from advances in materials modelling. Mobile phones, aircraft, power stations, fuels, medications, and much else that we now take for granted, all rely on materials. Many processes in the natural and living worlds, ranging from the growth of ice in the upper atmosphere all the way to diseases caused by protein mis-folding also involve the properties of materials. Many of today's challenges, such as climate change, energy production and healthcare, demand powerful methods for probing the properties of a vast range of materials. Theory and computer simulation, in close collaboration with experiment, is enormously important, and the research groups of TYC are using existing and emerging methods to address major problems in these and other areas. We emphasise the importance of developing new techniques, and we aim to cover all relevant length- and time-scales, from Angstroms to metres, and from femtoseconds to years.
The graduate courses offered by the participating Colleges cover all aspects of materials theory and simulation, and many of these courses are open to TYC students from all over London - see our Student pages for more information. Research students have the opportunity to interact with some of the world's top
scientists in the field, and the student experience is further enhanced by a rich variety of seminars, discussion meetings and workshops, which are open to everyone in the TYC community - see our Events pages.
The breadth and depth of TYC expertise offer an important resource for industry and government, and TYC groups have funded collaborations with both. We believe there is considerable scope for developing long-term partnerships - see our Business pages for more information.
By far the best way of getting to know TYC better is to come and visit us. London is a global crossroads, and is an exciting and interesting place to spend time. In some cases, it may be possible to provide financial assistance for short-term visits by junior researchers or for sabbatical visits by senior researchers - more details are on our Funded Visits page.
