Prof Jacqui Cole

Biography

Professor Jacqueline Cole holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professorship in Materials Physics at the University of Cambridge, where she is Head of Molecular Engineering.

She combines artificial intelligence with data science, computational methods and experimental research to afford a ‘design-to-device’ pipeline for data-driven materials discovery. Her research is highly interdisciplinary. Accordingly, she holds two PhDs: one in Physics from the University of Cambridge and one in Chemistry from the University of Durham.

She has received a number of awards and honours including: the Royal Society Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture 2020; the BASF / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair and Senior Research Fellowship in Data-driven Molecular Engineering of Functional Materials (2018-2023); the 1851 Royal Commission 2014 Fellowship in Design (2015-8), a Fulbright Award (all disciplines Scholar, 2013-4), and an ICAM Senior Scientist Fellowship (2013-4) for the smart material design of dye-sensitized solar cells; The Vice-Chancellor’s Research Chair, University of New Brunswick, Canada (2008-2013), a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2001-11), a Senior Research Fellowship (2002-2009) and Junior Research Fellowship (1999-2002) from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, UK, for the development and application of in situ light-induced single-crystal X-ray diffraction; the Royal Society of Chemistry SAC Silver Medal and Lecture (2009) for her contributions to the development of photo-crystallography and advanced methods in neutron diffraction; the Brian Mercer Feasibility Award (2007) for innovation in nanotechnology; the 18th Franco-British Science prize (2006) for collaborative research and cooperation between France and Britain; the first British Crystallographic Association Chemical Crystallography Prize (2000) for establishing structure-function relationships in organic non-linear optical materials.

Before moving to Cambridge, she held a post-doctoral position in Physics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. Prior to this, she undertook a PhD in Chemistry through an international studentship between the Institut Laue Langevin, Grenoble, France, and Durham University. Her university studies began at Durham University where she graduated with first class honours in Chemistry in 1994.

In her spare time, she has also obtained a BSc Hons degree in Mathematics (2000-4), a diploma in Statistics (2004-5), a Certificate in Astronomy and Planetary Science (2006-7), a Diploma in Physics (2007-8) and a BEng Hons degree in Engineering (2010-14) all through the Open University.

Research

Professor Cole combines artificial intelligence with data science, computational methods and experimental research to afford a ‘design-to-device’ pipeline for data-driven materials discovery. She is particularly interested in developing energy sustainable applications using photovoltaic, optical, magnetic, and catalytic materials. Her group use a wide variety of artificial intelligence (machine learning and natural language processing methods) with data science, computational methods (e.g. density functional theory) and advanced experimental techniques (diffraction, spectroscopy, imaging). Within this scope, the group develop and maintain the ‘chemistry-aware’ text-mining tool, ChemDataExtractor, and its associated software tools that process images: ImageDataExtractor and ChemSchematicResolver. On the experimental side, the group has pioneered a range of in situ diffraction and reflectometry methods for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications.