Stewart McWilliams

Research interests

I study high pressure and high temperature states of matter in the laboratory to address questions of scientific and technological interest.  I am interested in materials relevant to natural systems such as planetary interiors and to technologies such as energetic materials and inertial confinement fusion.  I develop and use ultrafast methods to create, sustain, and study extreme states.  These techniques use the diamond-anvil cell (static compression) and laser-driven shock compression (dynamic compression) to generate particular extreme states.  I visit facilities worldwide for access to high power laser systems, synchrotron radiation, and other special instrumentation.  I characterize fundamental material properties including strength, elastic moduli, optical properties, and melting points and examine how extreme conditions can be used to synthesize new materials.

Stewart currently offers the following PhD project opportunities:

Stewart has featured in the following recent School news stories:

Recent publications