My group website can be found at https://prenticegroup.org/

Joe is Lecturer in Materials Modelling in the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester, joining in January 2025. Prior to this, he spent 5 years at the University of Oxford as the Cooksey Early Career Teaching and Research Fellow in Materials Science and Stipendiary Lecturer at St Edmund Hall, and as a postdoc in the group of Prof Rebecca Nicholls. From 2017-2019, he was a postdoc at Imperial College London, jointly affiliated with the groups of Prof Arash Mostofi and Prof Peter Haynes, and with the Departments of Materials and Physics. 

Joe obtained his PhD in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2017, supervised by Prof Richard Needs. His thesis, entitled 'Investigating anharmonic effects in condensed matter systems', won the 2018 Institute of Physics Theory of Condensed Matter Group “Sam Edwards” Thesis Prize. Prior to this, he obtained his MPhys in Physics from the University of Oxford (University College) in 2014. 

My research interests are roughly evenly split between two strands: developing first principles methods to model large-scale systems (focusing on linear-scaling density functional (LS-DFT) and quantum embedding), and working with experimentalists to apply these methods to interesting and technologically relevant problems. Although I am interested in problems across the spectrum of materials science, currently I am focused on two main application areas: quantum technology and photovoltaics.

Method development

We have previously developed cutting-edge methods combining LS-DFT (including time-dependent DFT) with quantum embedding methods, by embedding hybrid LS-DFT within semi-local LS-DFT, providing a step-change in the accuracy of feasible calculations for large systems. We aim now to push beyond this to incorporate higher-level many-body methods within this paradigm, such as the GW approximation, the Bethe-Salpeter equation, and wavefunction-based methods. 

Defects for quantum technology

Defects in semiconductors, such as the famous NV centre in diamond, are among the leading candidates for quantum technology (QT) applications. We have been working extensively with experimental colleagues to help understand how the environment can influence the QT-relevant properties of these systems, particularly other defects like interstitials and vacancies. These effects can be static or dynamic, requiring the use of both LS-DFT-based techniques, but also machine learning potentials to accurately describe the dynamics of the system. We are now interested in pushing this research strand into new areas, looking at environmental effects on novel defects for QT in existing and new host materials, and examining the effect of extended defects as well.

Photovoltaics - organic and perovskite

Organic photovoltaics, particularly small-molecule ones, and hybrid perovskite photovoltaics are among the leading non-silicon photovoltaics available, but there is still a lot of work to be done to understand these materials and make them suitable for large-scale use. Organic photovoltaics are often disordered, and understanding the effect of this disorder on the optical properties of the system is a complex question, which we aim to help answer with LS-DFT-based methods. Perovskites are prone to defects and corrosion, with many different fabrication techniques used to try and mitigate this; we aim to use LS-DFT-based methods to understand how these defects and the constitutents added to stabilise the structure may affect the optical properties of the system.