deTomas Group
Carbons to decarbonise society
About Us
We are a multidisciplinary research group using advanced computational modelling to accelerate the discovery and design of materials for a Net Zero future. We focus on carbon-based materials, which play a critical role in key technologies for energy and gas storage. By integrating ab initio methods, molecular dynamics, and machine-learning-driven simulations, we aim to mimic real-world behaviour with high fidelity. Working closely with experimentalists in both academia and industry, we develop predictive and realistic models that can guide materials development toward real-world impact—while advancing our fundamental understanding of the physics and chemistry that underpin these systems.
Our People
Dr Carla de Tomas
Group Leader
Carla is a Senior Lecturer in Net Zero in the Department of Physics and a member of the Net Zero Centre, King's College London. She holds a PhD in Physics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and has built a multidisciplinary research career at the intersection of materials science, energy storage, and computational modelling. She has held prestigious fellowships and research appointments at institutions including Imperial College London (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), the University of Tokyo (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow), Curtin University, and the University of Western Australia. In addition, she brings industrial expertise from her role as Senior Computational Materials Scientist at Happy Electron Ltd., a London-based battery start-up. She currently serves as an Editorial Associate for Carbon, the leading international journal in carbon science.
King's Profile
Carolina Cruz-Cardona, PhD
Visiting Postdoc
Carolina is a computational chemist specialising in multiscale and multiphysics modelling for energy materials. She holds a PhD in Chemical Sciences from the Polish Academy of Sciences, where she studied ionic liquid mixtures under confinement. She comes from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, where she has conducted postdoctoral work on modelling of molten salt electrolytes for calcium batteries, and brings to the group her expertise in electrolyte modelling for application in a range of alkali-ion battery systems.
Anderson Arboleda-Lamus
PhD Student
Anderson graduated in Chemistry and Petroleum Engineering from the Industrial University of Santander, Colombia, where he later specialised in computational chemistry through a Master's in Chemistry. He developed expertise in molecular dynamics and density functional theory during his time as a Research Assistant in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. His PhD project at King's focuses on the data-driven optimisation of carbon materials for sustainable battery technologies, contributing to the global transition towards Net Zero emissions.
Kannan Sekar Annu Radha
KURF Fellow
As a King's Undergraduate Research Fellow, Kannan is developing machine learning models to accelerate the discovery of new carbon materials. By analyzing large datasets from simulations and experiments, he is building predictive tools to identify promising candidates for carbon capture.
sakannan.comResearch
Materials discovery: novel carbon nanoclusters.
t-SNE ML driven structure-property correlations in carbon nanoclusters databases.
Collaborations
Our research is highly collaborative, and we work closely with leading academic and industrial partners from around the world to tackle major challenges in materials science and sustainability.
Our Collaborators
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Dr Fernando Vallejos-Burgos, Morgan Advanced Materials, USA
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Prof Katsumi Kaneko, Shinshu University, Japan
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Nishihara Lab, Tohoku University, Japan
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Curtin Carbon Group, Australia
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Titirici Group, Imperial College London
Contact Us
We are always looking for passionate students and researchers to join our team.
For inquiries, please contact Dr. Carla de Tomas at:
carla.de_tomas@kcl.ac.uk
Department of Physics
King's College London
Strand, London WC2R 2LS