Nicholas Frederick Chilton is an Australian

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the Research School of Chemistry at The

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

and The

Department of Chemistry An academic department is a division of a university or school faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline. In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, universities tend to use the term faculty; faculties are typically furthe ...

at The

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. His research is in the areas of

magnetochemistry Magnetochemistry is concerned with the magnetic properties of chemical compounds and Chemical element, elements. Magnetic properties arise from the spin and orbital angular momentum of the electrons contained in a compound. Compounds are diamagneti ...

and

computational chemistry Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulations to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry incorporated into computer programs to calculate the structures and properties of mol ...

, and includes the design of high-temperature single molecule magnets, molecular spin

qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...

s for

quantum information science Quantum information science is a field that combines the principles of quantum mechanics with information theory to study the processing, analysis, and transmission of information. It covers both theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum phys ...

, methods and tools for modelling magnetic calculations.

Education

Chilton completed his Advanced

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(Honors) degree at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

in 2011 where he finished his final year project with Stuart R. Batten and Keith S. Murray. His research at Monash included the synthesis and characterization of low-symmetry dysprosium complexes, and mixed-metallic

lanthanide The lanthanide () or lanthanoid () series of chemical elements comprises at least the 14 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–70, from lanthanum through ytterbium. In the periodic table, they fill the 4f orbitals. Lutetium (el ...

transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. The lanthanide and actinid ...

clusters, that display single molecule magnetism. During this time, he also designed a software program,
PHI
'' for the calculation of the magnetic properties of

paramagnetic Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism whereby some materials are weakly attracted by an externally applied magnetic field, and form internal, induced magnetic fields in the direction of the applied magnetic field. In contrast with this behavior, ...

coordination complex A coordination complex is a chemical compound consisting of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of chemical bond, bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ' ...

es. Chilton completed his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

, supervised by Richard Winpenny and Eric McInnes in 2015.

Research and career

Chilton completed

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British UK Research Councils, Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical scienc ...

National EPR facility in collaboration with the University of Manchester. In 2016, he was awarded the British Ramsay Memorial Fellowship (2016–2018) to research how

coordination chemistry A coordination complex is a chemical compound consisting of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of chemical bond, bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ' ...

can be used to engineer specific magnetic states of

ions. From 2017, He began work as a Senior Lecturer and a

Royal Society University Research Fellow __NOTOC__ The Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) is a research fellowship awarded to outstanding early career scientists in the United Kingdom who are judged by the Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society ...

in the

at the University of Manchester. In 2021, he was promoted to

in Computational and theoretical chemistry, and in 2023 he moved to The

and holds a joint appointment with The

. Chilton's research is in the areas of

and

, specifically on the design of high-temperature single molecule magnets, molecular spin

s for

, understanding

MRI contrast agent MRI contrast agents are contrast agents used to improve the visibility of internal body structures in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The most commonly used compounds for contrast enhancement are gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). Suc ...

s, unravelling the

electronic structure Quantum chemistry, also called molecular quantum mechanics, is a branch of physical chemistry focused on the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems, particularly towards the quantum-mechanical calculation of electronic contributions ...

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

coordination complexes, magnetic interactions between f-elements, and in developing computational methods and tools.

Notable work

In 2017, with synthetic chemist David P. Mills, Chilton led the magnetic characterization of a dysprosocenium ion

single-molecule magnet A single-molecule magnet (SMM) is a metal-organic compound that has superparamagnetic behavior below a certain blocking temperature at the molecular scale. In this temperature range, an SMM exhibits magnetic hysteresis of purely molecular origin.< ...

, which exhibits

magnetic hysteresis Magnetic hysteresis occurs when an external magnetic field is applied to a ferromagnet such as iron and the atomic dipoles align themselves with it. Even when the field is removed, part of the alignment will be retained: the material has become ' ...

at 60 Kelvin. Chilton has also collaborated in developing software to be used in chemical research, particularly in modelling magnetic relaxation and magnetic properties of coordination complexes. In 2013, with Alessandro Soncini he designed a computer program for the determination of the orientation of the magnetic anisotropy of the m_J = ±15/2 state of Dy^III via electrostatic optimization of the aspherical electron density distribution. He also designed a program named
PHI
' for the calculation of the magnetic properties of

es in the same year. In 2019, with his post-doctoral researcher Daniel Reta, designed
CC-FIT2
', a tool for the fitting of experimental AC magnetic susceptibility data using the (generalized)

Debye model In thermodynamics and solid-state physics, the Debye model is a method developed by Peter Debye in 1912 to estimate phonon contribution to the specific heat ( heat capacity) in a solid. It treats the vibrations of the atomic lattice (heat) a ...

, extraction of magnetic relaxation times with associated uncertainties, and fitting the temperature dependence of these data accounting for uncertainties in the underlying relaxation times.

Awards, honours and nominations

* 2023: Zasshikai Lectureship Prize, The University of Tokyo * 2022:

Philip Leverhulme Prize The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize sche ...

* 2021: Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prizes * 2020: Distinguished Achievement Medal: Teacher of the Year, The University of Manchester * 2019:

Royal Society University Research Fellowship __NOTOC__ The Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) is a research fellowship awarded to outstanding early career scientists in the United Kingdom who are judged by the Royal Society to have the potential to become leaders in their fie ...

* 2019: Olivier Kahn International Award * 2016: British Ramsay Memorial Fellowship * 2015: Dalton Young Researchers Award

Publications

His major publications include: * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chilton, Nicholas F. Living people Academics of the University of Manchester 21st-century Australian chemists Monash University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)