Rachel Claire Evans

FLSW The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

is a Welsh chemist based at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

. She works on photoactive polymer-hybrid materials for solar devices, including

organic photovoltaics An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport t ...

and stimuli-responsive membranes.

Early life and education

Evans grew up in

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

. She studied at

Swansea University Swansea University () is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it chang ...

, earning a

Master of Chemistry A Master of Chemistry (or MChem) degree is a specific master's degree for courses in the field of Chemistry. United Kingdom In the UK, the M.Chem degree is an undergraduate award, available after pursuing a four- or five-year course of study at ...

(MChem) degree in 2002. During her Masters, she completed an

International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience, commonly referred to as IAESTE, is an international organization exchanging students for technical work experience abroad. Students gain relevant technical train ...

(IASTE)

ship at

Lonza Group Lonza Group AG is a Swiss multinational manufacturing company for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and nutrition sectors, headquartered in Basel, with major facilities in Europe, North America and South Asia. Lonza was established under that name ...

. She returned to

for her

PhD 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 ...

, investigating on light-emitting materials for display technologies.

Research and career

After her PhD, Evans spent a year at the

University of Aveiro The University of Aveiro () is a public university, in addition to providing polytechnic (Portugal), polytechnic education, located in the Portuguese city of Aveiro, Portugal, Aveiro. Founded in 1973, it has a student population of approximately ...

. She was subsequently awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

where she worked as a

postdoc 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 academ ...

on fluorescence of soft materials. Evans left Paris to join the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

as a

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia The Foundation for Science and Technology (; FCT) is an organization within the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education in Portugal which evaluates and funds scientific research activities, in particular in the areas of natural scie ...

postdoctoral fellow. She moved to

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

in 2009, where she was a lecturer in Physical Chemistry. Her research was funded by

Science Foundation Ireland Science Foundation Ireland (SFI; ) was a statutory body in Ireland. It was an agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, with responsibility for funding oriented basic and applied research in th ...

and

Enterprise Ireland Enterprise Ireland is an Irish state economic development agency focused on helping Irish-owned business deliver new export sales. The aim of Enterprise Ireland is to help Irish enterprises to "start, grow, innovate and win export sales in glo ...

. She delivered the 2011

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

Schools lecture on the ''Chemistry of Light''. In 2013 she published the textbook ''Applied Photochemistry'' with

Springer Publishing Springer Publishing Company is an American publishing company of academic journals and books, focusing on the fields of nursing, gerontology, psychology, social work, counseling, public health, and rehabilitation (neuropsychology). It was estab ...

. They explored self-assembly of conjugated

polyelectrolyte Polyelectrolytes are polymers whose repeating units bear an electrolyte group. Polycations and polyanions are polyelectrolytes. These groups dissociate in aqueous solutions (water), making the polymers charged. Polyelectrolyte properties are t ...

–

polyoxometalate In chemistry, a polyoxometalate (abbreviated POM) is a polyatomic ion, usually an anion, that consists of three or more transition metal oxyanions linked together by shared oxygen atoms to form closed 3-dimensional frameworks. The metal atoms are ...

networks, with dimensions controlled by the polymer chain length and steric charge distribution. The self-assembly of these lumophores can be used to tune the optical and electronic properties. To understand the morphology of these films and inform the design of performance nanostructured devices, her group use

small-angle scattering Small-angle scattering (SAS) is a scattering technique based on deflection of collimated radiation away from the straight trajectory after it interacts with structures that are much larger than the wavelength of the radiation. The deflection is ...

, spectroscopy and microscopy. Small-angle scattering allows her to study the microstructure of hybrid materials at the near atomic scale. Their conjugated polyelectrolyte work was featured in the ''

ChemComm ''ChemComm'' (or ''Chemical Communications''), formerly known as ''Journal of the Chemical Society D: Chemical Communications'' (1969–1971), ''Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications'' (1972–1995), is a peer-reviewed scientific ...

'' Emerging Investigators issue. She also worked on oxygen sensitive printable ink sensors. Evans has explored polymer-hybrid materials for

luminescent solar concentrator A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is a device for concentrating radiation, solar radiation in particular, to produce electricity. Luminescent solar concentrators operate on the principle of collecting radiation over a large area, converting i ...

s. By controlling the placement and orientation of the lumophore, she showed that it is possible to limit light lost by

reabsorption In renal physiology, reabsorption, more specifically tubular reabsorption, is the process by which the nephron removes water and solutes from the tubular fluid (pre-urine) and returns them to the circulating blood. It is called ''reabsorption' ...

. She minimises waveguiding losses by designing materials with high

refractive indices In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is the ratio of the apparent speed of light in the air or vacuum to the speed in the medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refrac ...

. She demonstrated that perylene carboxdiimide-bridged triethoxysilane can be covalently grafted to siloxane hybrids. Her work was featured in the ''

Journal of Materials Chemistry C The ''Journal of Materials Chemistry C'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the properties, applications, and synthesis of new materials related to optical, magnetic and electronic devices. It is one of the three journals created ...

'' Emerging Investigators Issue in 2016. She also develops encapsulation techniques to improve device lifetime. She was made an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in 2016. She collaborated extensively with the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...

as part of a French-Irish collaboration. Evans was appointed a lecturer at the

in 2017 and a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Her group explore soft materials that are responsive to stimuli, nanostructured inks and hybrid nanoparticles. The soft materials respond to light, using photoresponsive surfactants that include an

azobenzene Azobenzene is a photoswitchable chemical compound composed of two phenyl rings linked by a azo compound, N=N double bond. It is the simplest example of an aryl azo compound. The term 'azobenzene' or simply 'azo' is often used to refer to a wide c ...

group. She was appointed chair of the

Photophysics and Photochemistry Group in 2017. She founded Senoptica Technologies in 2018 and is the chief scientific officer (CSO) working on optical sensors developed in Evans' lab. Senoptica Technologies detect defective

modified atmosphere packaging Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package (commonly food packages, drugs, etc.) in order to improve the shelf life. The need for this technology for food arises from ...

, changing colour to alert the consumer to the amount of

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

in the pack.

Awards and honours

2023 Elected a

Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh nation. The Learned ...

(FLSW) 2018 Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) is one of the most prestigious awards conferred by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in the United Kingdom. Existing Fellows include award winning scientists and Nobel prize winners. FRSC awa ...

(FRSC) 2018 Nominated a

Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a British engineering institution with activities including promotion of the development of materials science. It has been a Charitable organization, registered charity governed by a ro ...

(FIMMM) 2017

(RSC) and

Society of Chemical Industry The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) is a learned society set up in 1881 "to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit". Offices The society's headquarters is in Belgrave Square, London. There are semi-in ...

UK Young Researchers Medal 2017

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

Dillwyn Medal 2015

Fellowship 2014 Irish Lab Awards ''Young Leader of the Year'' 2008 RSC Harry Hallam prize 2007 RSC Ronald Belcher Memorial Lectureship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Rachel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Welsh chemists Welsh women scientists Welsh women chemists Women physical chemists Alumni of Swansea University Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Fellows of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales 21st-century Welsh women scientists 21st-century Welsh scientists