News

The group has published a new paper investigating neutral tantalum clusters, where photoionization was observed upon absorption of many tens of infrared photons. This data was acquired from our first beamtime at HFML-FELIX and is the second paper published as part of the ongoing collaboration between the Mackenzie group here in Oxford and the group of Dr. Joost Bakker on the FELICE beamline.

The group is off to the HFML-FELIX facility in Nijmegen again for another beamtime, working with the group of Dr. Joost Bakker at the FELICE beamline.

We are pleased to welcome Professor Lai-Sheng Wang this Michaelmas term, as he will be joining the group for his sabbatical as a visiting fellow at Magdalen College.

After successfully completing his MChem in the Mackenzie group, David rejoins the cluster team as a DPhil student.

Christian, Peter, and David attended the 2025 HFML-FELIX user meeting this summer in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Christian was invited to give a talk on the groups' past and present studies of molecular activation at metal clusters using free-electron lasers. Peter also gave a talk focussed on the recently published work investigating nitric oxide binding to cationic cobalt clusters, while David presented a poster on the work he carried out for his MChem project looking at carbon dioxide activation on rhodium clusters.

A big congratulations to all the Part II students this year in the Mackenzie-Timmel group for working so hard!   

Dr. Peter Watson has published a new paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A as part of the Mark A. Johnson Festschrift special issue. This is an IRPD study of cationic NO and NO2 clusters which was part of an ongoing project from Peter's time at the University of Oxford.

The Mackenzie-Timmel group enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner hosted at New College by Prof. Christiane Timmel. 

Stuart and Peter Rubli attend the IR-FEL user meeting for the Max Planck-Radboud University Center for IR-FEL spectroscopy hosted in Schloss Ringberg, a castle located in the Bavarian Alps.

A warm welcome to our new part II students David and Chloe.

We welcome Ellen Jones into the cluster group after she spent the first years of her DPhil in the Burt group. Our team dynamic is infinitely improved.

Peter Rubli attended the Radboud University summer school for infrared free-electron lasers.

Well done to Dr. Ed Brewer who completed his viva today, a celebration at Al-Andalus was definitely in order!