Jenny Clark
Vice-Chancellor’s Advanced Fellow - Department of Physics and Astronomy
Profile
Dr Jenny Clark developed an interest in biology at school in Belgium, but found it too qualitative and so ended up studying physics at university. She did her undergraduate and masters at Imperial College London, with a year in Padua, but a summer stint at UCL was enough to cement a desire to work in the field of biophysics.
However, for her PhD she chose to work in a completely different research area, attracted by a more positive and supportive atmosphere. Her supervisor moved away after her first year but she managed to acquire another via email, who became a collaborator, friend and mentor to her and gave her the confidence to move on with the next stages of her career.
While an academic career path does generally mean moving around quite a lot, placing her relationship and family life first has never negatively impacted on her career. She continues to love her work and finds it fascinating, learning something new every day.
“If you’ve got something that’s scary and you’re not really sure whether you have the confidence… just do it because you never know what the outcome will be.”
Career timeline
2001
Undergraduate Researcher, University of Delaware.
2001-2002
Undergraduate Researcher, Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine, Padua (Italy).
2002
Undergraduate Researcher, University College London.
2003
Msci Physics with a year in Europe (First) Imperial College London.
Imperial College Entrepreneurs’ Challenge Finalist prize.
2004
E-MRS Student Award.
2006
PhD in Physics, University of Cambridge.
EPSRC studentship with Industrial Case Award with Seiko EPSON UK.
E-MRS Presentation Nice, France.
Poster at ICSM Conference, Dublin, Ireland.
Second author paper
‘Molecular weight dependence of interchain polaron delocalization and exciton bandwidth in high-mobility conjugated polymers’ J-F. Chang, J. Clark, N. Zhao, and H. Sirringhaus, D.W. Breiby, J.W. Andreasen, and M.M. Nielsen, M. Giles, M. Heeney, and I. McCulloch. Physical Review B 74, 115318 (2006).
2006-2014
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Politecnico di Milano.
2007
First author paper
‘Role of Intermolecular Coupling in the Photophysics of Disordered Organic Semiconductors: Aggregate Emission in Regioregular Polythiophene’ J. Clark, C. Silva, R.H. Friend and F.C. Spano.E-MRS presentation Strasbourg, France.
Optical Probes Talk, Finland.
Invited talk
International Symposium on nano and ultrafast photonics, Beijing China (October 2007) ‘Ultrafast all-optical switching in Polymer Optical Fiber Amplifiers’.
2008
First author paper
‘Blue polymer optical fiber amplifiers based on conjugated fluorene oligomers’ J. Clark, L. Bazzana, D.D.C. Bradley, J. Cabanillas-Gonzalez, G. Lanzani, D.G. Lidzey, J. Morgado, A. Nocivelli, W.C. Tsoi, T. Virgili, and R. Xia. Journal of Nanophotonics, 2 023504 (2008).Poster at Ultrafast Phenomena Conference, Stresa, Italy.
First author paper
‘Charge recombination in heterostructures of semiconductor discotic and polymeric materials’ J. Clark, R. Archer, T. Redding, C. Foden, J. Tant, Y. Geerts, R.H. Friend and C. Silva. Journal of Applied Physics, 103 124510 (2008).
2009
Visiting Scholar, Hyderabad University.
Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, University of Cambridge.
2010
Charles and Catherine Darwin Research Fellowship (three years).
2011
Invited talk
Optical Probes, Santa Fe, USA.
2012
Maternity leave (nine months).
First author paper
‘Femtosecond torsional relaxation’ J. Clark, T. Nelson, S. Tretiak, C. Cirmi and G. Lanzani. Nature Physics, 8, 225-231.
2013
Invited talk
Materials Research Society, San Francisco, USA.Maternity leave (13 months).
2014
Second author paper
‘Triplet Dynamics in Pentacene Crystals: Applications to Fission-Sensitized Photovoltaics’ A.D. Poletayev, J. Clark, M.W.B. Wilson, A. Rao, Y. Makino, S. Hotta, R.H. Friend. Advanced Materials, 26, 919.
2014 to present
Vice-Chancellor’s Advanced Fellow, the University of Sheffield.
2015
Invited talk
Light Harvesting Processes, Klöster Banz, Germany.Last author paper
‘The Nature of Singlet Exciton Fission in Carotenoid Aggregates’ A.J. Musser, M. Mauri, D. Brida, G. Cerullo, R.H. Friend and J. Clark. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137, 5130 (2015).