Malcolm McMahon

Photo of Professor M I McMahon, DSc, FRSE
Professor M I McMahon, DSc, FRSE

Professor M I McMahon, DSc, FRSE

Position
Professor of High Pressure Physics
Category
Academic staff
Location
James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB)
Room 3804

Malcolm is a member of the following School research institute and research area:

Research interests

Prof McMahon's research is in the behaviour of materials at extremes of pressure and temperature.

At extreme pressures, where atoms are pushed close together, it was long assumed that all materials would become metallic, with simple, close-packed crystal structures. By investigating the structures of materials under such conditions using synchrotron radiation, McMahon’s research has shown that this is untrue, and that even the simplest of elements adopt wholly unexpected structural complexity at high density. The array of complex and incommensurate structures that has been unveiled are unlike anything seen at ambient conditions. In addition to using synchrotron storage rings, McMahon also uses large laser platforms and x-ray lasers to investigate the behaviour of materials under dynamic compression on femtosecond timescales.

McMahon was awarded a DSc degree by the University of Edinburgh in 2006, and appointed to a Personal Chair in High Pressure Physics in 2007. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and holds a William Penney Fellowship with AWE. He was awarded the inaugural Louis Delbaere Prize of the Canadian Light Source in 2010, and awarded a Humboldt Research Award in 2013.

I am Course Organiser for the 2nd year Practical Physics course, and class leader for both the Data Analysis and Laboratory components of this course.

I host both Senior Honours and MPhys projects.

Research in a nutshell video thumbnail

High density matters

In this video Malcolm describes how is team uses the world’s largest laser systems to dynamically compress matter to very high densities, reproducing conditions only otherwise found deep within large planets.

Recent publications

  1. , Journal of applied physics, 134, 5, p. 1-38
  2. , Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 30, Pt 4, p. 671-685
  3. , , , , and , Journal of applied physics, 133, 24, p. 1-9
  4. , , , and , High Pressure Research, 43, 1, p. 40-57
  5. , , , , , , , , , et al., Nature Physics, 18, 11, p. 1307-1311