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Peter Spackman

@crystalexplorer.net
416 followers 393 following 59 posts

Computers, crystals and chemistry. Research Fellow in the Computational Materials and Minerals Group at Curtin University. @peterspackman@mastodon.social

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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 29/09/2026
Another paper finally out! doi.org/10.1021/acs....
doi.org
An Open Implementation of MSEVB for Reactive Force Field Simulation with Simple Energy-Based Coupling
Abstract. Chemical reactivity modeling in large systems over extended time scales is computationally and theoretically challenging; ab initio methods are t
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Martijn Zwijnenburg @zwijcompchem.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Great event in the department yesterday to celebrate the retirement of Prof. Sally Price FRS #chemsky #compchem
A picture of Sally giving a talk about her career A picture of Sally giving a talk about her career A picture of Sally giving a talk about her career
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 22/09/2026
You’re just too counterculture when it comes to rocks!
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Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 16/09/2026
Interesting #PostDoc opportunity in Dunedin - project investigating the formation and structure of mixed clathrate hydrate minerals relevant to Titan’s surface - deadline 20th September otago.taleo.net/careersectio...
otago.taleo.net
Postdoctoral Fellow - Chemistry
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
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Acta Cryst B @actacrystb.iucr.org · 07/09/2026
James R. Brookes et al.: Mapping structure–property relationships in a 6-oxo-verdazyl radical by variable pressure crystallography and density functional theory: journals.iucr.org/b/issues/202...
journals.iucr.org
Mapping structure–property relationships in a 6-oxo-verdazyl radical by variable pressure crystallography and density functional theory
For the first time, the structural response to pressure of a verdazyl radical crystal has been studied. Computational modelling revealed changes in electronic and magnetic properties as a result of a ...
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Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 14/08/2026
Our #IUCr2026 craft night is in full swing! Lovely evening out at a local yarn shop! Science (fibre) knitworking at it’s best #BraggYourPattern
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Dr Rosalyn Falconer @rosalynfalconer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The University of Auckland School of Chemical Sciences is hiring a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry. Please share with your networks, especially to promising early career or postdoctoral researchers. Applications close 22 August. tinyurl.com/MedChemUoA
tinyurl.com
Pouako|Lecturer - Te Kura Mātai Matū |The School of Chemical Sciences - Medicinal Chemistry
Company Description: Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of AucklanKo te whare Pūtaiao | The Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland is the largest and most highly ranked scie...
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 22/07/2026
Mixed feelings on this. Looks like even more independent research careers will have to live or die by the 5 year post-PhD mark. Fundamentally, I don't think redistributing the (relatively small) pot of money will really fix any of the main issues but I'd love to be wrong on that.
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COSMO Lab @labcosmo.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
What will O2, benzene and ozone do on top of a Mendeleev cluster 🤔 ? Thanks to the improved mlip.js webtool from Peter Spackman you can figure it out running #PET-MAD-XS in your browser using webgpu 🚀 . Try it out at @crystalexplorer.net 's amazing MLIP.js peterspackman.github.io/mlip.cpp/
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Laura McCaslin @lauramccaslin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I’m hiring a postdoc at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, CA, USA to develop and apply molecular dynamics theory. Please forward to potentially interested candidates. Job ID: 698224. cg.sandia.gov/psc/applican...
cg.sandia.gov
An error has occurred.
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Volker Blum @aimsduke.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Hooray! doi.org/10.1088/2516...
doi.org
Roadmap on Advancements of the FHI-aims Software Package
Roadmap on Advancements of the FHI-aims Software Package, Blum, Volker, Kokott, Sebastian, Rossi, Mariana, Scheffler, Matthias, Abbott, Joseph W. W., Mera Acosta, Carlos, Akkoush, Alaa, Ambrosetti, Alberto, Atalla, Viktor, Bagrets, Alexej, Behler, Joerg, Berger, Daniel, Bieniek, Björn, Björk, Jonas, Bohloul, Saeed, Box, Connor L., Boyer, Nicholas James, Brambila, Danilo Simoes, Bramley, Gabriel A., Bryenton, Kyle R., Camarasa-Gómez, María, Carbogno, Christian, Caruso, Fabio, Chutia, Sucismita, Ceriotti, Michele, Csányi, Gábor, Dawson, William, Delesma, Francisco A., della sala, fabio, Delley, Bernard, DiStasio, Robert, Dragoumi, Maria, Driessen, Sander, Dvorak, Marc, Erker, Simon, Evers, Ferdinand, Fabiano, Eduardo, Farrow, Matthew R., Fiebig, Florian, Filser, Jakob, Foppa, Lucas, Gallandi, Lukas, Garcia, Alberto, Gehrke, Ralf, Ghan, Simiam, Ghiringhelli, Luca, Glass, Mark, Goedecker, Stefan, Golze, Dorothea, Green, James A., Grisafi, Andrea, Grüneis, Andreas, Günzl, Johannes Jan, Gutzeit, Stefan, Hall, Samuel J., Hanke, Felix, Havu, Ville, He, Xingtao, Hekele, Joscha, Hellman, Olle, Herath, Uthpala, Hermann, Jan, Hernangómez-Pérez, Daniel, Hofmann, Oliver T, Hoja, Johannes, Hollweger, Simon, Hörmann, Lukas, Hourahine, Benjamin, How, Wei Bin, Huhn, William P., Hülsberg, Marcel, Panahian Jand, Sara, Jiang, Hongbing, Johnson, Erin, Jürgens, Werner, Kahk, Juhan Matthias, Kanai, Yosuke, Kang, Kisung, Karpov, Petr, Kempt, Roman, Khan, Danish, Kick, Matthias, Klein, Benedikt P., Kloppenburg, Jan, Knoll, Alexander, Knoop, Florian, Knuth, Franz, Köcher, Simone S., Kockläuner, Jannis, Körzdörfer, Thomas, Kowalski, Hagen-Henrik, Kratzer, Peter, Kus, Pavel, Laasner, Raul, Lang, Bruno, Lange, Björn, Langer, Marcel F, Larsen, Ask Hjorth, Lederer, Hermann
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 15/06/2026
Unfortunately for computational chemists, real chemical systems actually undergo reactions affecting dynamics on timescales that are hard to simulate... Hence, multi-state empirical valence bond simulations for reactive force field simulations chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....
chemrxiv.org
Simplifying Reactive Force Field Simulations | ChemRxiv
Chemical reactivity modelling in large systems over extended timescales is computationally and theoretically challenging; ab initio methods are too expensive, while classical force fields cannot handl...
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COSMO Lab @labcosmo.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Time to learn the action 🏃 ! Today I'm sharing a paper, just published on @physrevlett.bsky.social, showing how to construct a symplectic #machinelearning predictor of classical mechanics by learning the Hamilton-Jacobi action.
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 10/06/2026
Just add some more ADPs to absorb those errors and that’s ready for publication 😎
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 05/06/2026
I don’t have the budget for hundreds of GPUs or even a backend, so I had to make mine use your local resources 🤓 peterspackman.github.io/mlip.cpp/
peterspackman.github.io
mlip.js - ML Interatomic Potentials in the Browser
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Keenan Crane @keenancrane.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Giving a talk in the @Stanford SCIEN seminar this Wednesday (1/3) at 4:30pm: scien.stanford.edu/index.php/ev... The topic is “normal coordinates”: a shape representation little-used outside of mathematics—but which turns out to have nice applications in geometry processing & learning.
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Structural Chemistry @actacrystc.iucr.org · 18/05/2026
Visualizing and teaching crystallographic symmetry using Jmol doi.org/10.1107/S205... #OtterbeinStem #StOlaf #Jmol #SpaceGroup #Symmetry #Visualizer #symmetry #visualization #openaccess #IUCr #crystallography
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Andrew S. Rosen @andrewrosen.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
The Rosen Group at Princeton University is accepting applications for a postdoctoral researcher interested in developing and applying machine learning interatomic potentials to model the dynamics of inorganic, solid-state materials. Apply at apply.interfolio.com/186022 if interested!
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 13/05/2026
Those hydrogen bonds look pretty structure directing, might be worth exploring, that.
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Andy Cooper @aicooper.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I could swear I've seen the methylated HOF material reported in this paper somewhere before ... pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org
Strategic MOF Linker Methylation to Direct Pore Structure and Local Dynamics
The marvelous substrate recognition of enzyme hosts is attributed to induced-fit binding, in which the enzyme host maintains a delicate balance between preorganization and flexibility. For synthetic porous hosts such as MOFs, programmable control over the local and global flexibility modes is thus crucial for the optimization of host–guest interactions. Here we show that methylation adjacent to the pyrene-arene junction of the linker permits the synthesis of a derivative of NU-1000 in which aryl rotation is thermally inaccessible, but small-angle librations remain facile. Mechanochemically promoted Suzuki cross-coupling was able to overcome the twin challenges of poor solubility and steric congestion to access a linker that could not be prepared in solution. The incorporation of methyl groups in the linker controls the local dynamics of the MOF pore and permits a window that interconnects channels in the unsubstituted MOF to evolve into a separate micropore environment. In addition, we show how the different chemical shifts observed for nuclei that extend into distinct MOF pores permit experimental determination of rotational barriers via variable-temperature 13C solid-state NMR.
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James Lloyd 🧬 @jamespblloyd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I am super excited to announce that I am recruiting a new post-doc to join my team at UWA & @plants4space.bsky.social to work on plant synthetic biology, with a focus on genome engineering. If you are interested, please apply or reach out to me. external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/52...
external.jobs.uwa.edu.au
Prospective staff : Jobs at UWA : The University Of Western Australia
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 17/04/2026
How well can you predict mechanical properties (elastic tensors) for molecular crystals *just* looking at pairwise interaction energies? Surprisingly well! With a big asterisk... Read all the ways it fails and where it works in JCTC now: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
pubs.acs.org
Elastic Tensors from Pairwise Energy Frameworks in Molecular Crystals
The mechanical properties of molecular crystals are fundamentally important in their industrial applications across pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, energetic materials and other areas. Despite this, complete measurement or even computational prediction of elastic tensors for molecular crystals is anything but commonplace. The absence of rapid, reliable and broadly applicable methods in this endeavor frequently leads chemists to rely on intuitive ideas and examination of pairwise intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen- or halogen-bonds in order to rationalize the mechanical behavior of molecular crystals. Such perspectives are widespread in contemporary literature, but the extent to which these notions yield reliable and quantifiable insight is itself relatively unexplored. We propose a simple approximation, the Equilibrium Pairwise Model (EPM), compatible with any method to predict intermolecular interaction energies, that directly and efficiently yields an estimate of the complete elastic tensor. The protocol can be performed for any given molecular crystal structure, even those directly from experiment (i.e., without geometry optimization), and is guaranteed by construction to yield a positive-definite result─in contrast to conventional methods where computing valid elastic tensors for molecular crystals can prove challenging even for well-established and otherwise accurate model chemistries. We examine the accuracy of this protocol, along with other classical and contemporary methods, against experiment and periodic (plane-wave) density functional theory calculations to assess their reliability and accuracy. Through examination of the failures and successes, we aim to provide chemical insight into the kinds of materials where the model and, more broadly, thinking based on pairwise intermolecular interactions can reliably explain mechanical or other material properties and where they should be avoided.
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 08/04/2026
I think Fermions are probably still cursed too tbh
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 10/03/2026
Come work with my colleagues at Curtin! New postdoc opportunity modelling leaching of precious metals with glycine, a challenging intersection of a lot of chemical problems - particularly for computational chemistry! staff.curtin.edu.au/job-vacancie...
staff.curtin.edu.au
Job vacancies, employment opportunities, academic and professional positions - Careers at Curtin | Curtin University, Perth Australia
Our mission is to transform lives and communities through education and research. Curtin employees form a unique and diverse community committed to innovative research and student learning. Find out a...
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Erik Svensson Grape @esvenssongrape.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I am incredibly honored to recieve this prize! Greatly looking forward to attending @iucr2026.bsky.social - I have many people to thank for all the learning and exciting research over these past years. First and foremost though, is my crystallography mentor and great friend @keninge.bsky.social
Erik Svensson Grape - awardee - Struchkov Prize 2026
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 05/03/2026
Awesome, congratulations!
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 04/03/2026
Looking forward to checking these out!
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Journal of Open Source Software @joss-openjournals.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Just published in JOSS: 'Open Computational Chemistry (OCC) - A portable software library and program for quantum chemistry and crystallography' doi.org/10.21105/joss.09609
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COSMO Lab @labcosmo.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Not going to make a big deal out of a benchmark table, but PET just got the top spot on matbench-discovery.materialsproject.org. And don't be fooled by the huge parameters count, it's faster and can handle larger structures than eSEN-30M 🚀. Kudos to 🧑‍🚀 Filippo, Arslan and Paolo!
Screenshot of the matbench discovery leaderboard as of 14.01.2026, showing a PET based model in the top position
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Andy Cooper @aicooper.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Just archived today - "RobInHood: A Robotic Chemist in a Fume Hood" - where we squeezed a robot arm into a standard-format fume hood to carry out a range of chemistry operations. Potentially scalable to any lab that has fume hoods. Well done Louis, Franciso et al. chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr... 🤖🧪
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 02/01/2026
One more week to apply to work with me - trying to predict the crystals on Titan!
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Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 22/12/2025
📢 One less molecular mystery - the crystal structure of diacetylene is solved, published in @iucrj.iucr.org today! Fantastic work by Larissa, and also I think will be the first structure deposit in @ccdc.cam.ac.uk from wombat! Read the OA paper here journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...
A title image describing a recently publish scientific paper.  The title is To help publicize your article, Crystal structure of diacetylene unveiled by X-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and periodic DFT' and there is a brief description of the paper that reads 'The crystal structure and thermal expansion behaviour of diacetylene were determined via diffraction methods and supplemented by spectroscopic techniques. The similarities to acetylene's structure and implications for Titan in situ exploration are discussed.'  There is also an image that depicts the crystal structure and its unit cell
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 18/12/2025
Great to see the work in Vitaly’s group on descriptors for comparing crystal structures get recognised, and in an interesting article to boot!
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Jordan Dorrell @stochasticchemist.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Super excited to get this preprint online with @graemeday.bsky.social ! With SAUCE, we significantly improve on the efficiency of random structure searching for crystals containing multiple symmetry-independent molecules! chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr... #compchem #csp
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 16/12/2025
Still a few more weeks to apply for a sunny postdoc opportunity with a pretty cool guy (me) in a really warm place (Perth) and predict the organic crystals on a pretty cold place (Titan), in space. staff.curtin.edu.au/job-vacancie...
staff.curtin.edu.au
Job vacancies, employment opportunities, academic and professional positions - Careers at Curtin | Curtin University, Perth Australia
Our mission is to transform lives and communities through education and research. Curtin employees form a unique and diverse community committed to innovative research and student learning. Find out a...
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 16/12/2025
Congratulations!
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 10/12/2025
Excited to share our new pre-print, with features sneakily already available in CrystalExplorer + OCC: Elastic Tensors from Pairwise Energy Frameworks in Molecular Crystals doi.org/10.26434/che...
doi.org
Elastic Tensors from Pairwise Energy Frameworks in Molecular Crystals
Mechanical properties of molecular crystals are fundamentally important to their in- dustrial utility as pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals, energetic materials and more. Yet, complete measurements of e...
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Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 09/12/2025
New paper out, High-pressure crystallisation of Isobutyronitrile pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/..., nice results from the UWA and Synchrotron team that show this small molecule crystallises into the same structure as at low temperatures. There's some lovely calculations that explain why this may be.
pubs.acs.org
High-Pressure Crystallization and Compression of Isobutyronitrile
The structural response of a high-pressure phase of isobutyronitrile up to 6.12 GPa was studied by using high-pressure single-crystal X-ray diffraction, periodic density functional theory (DFT), and C...
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 04/12/2025
👀
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 03/12/2025
Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into it. Unfortunately, at least for my research where it's overwhelmingly C, H, and N, titanium isn't a particularly important element :( maybe I'll find a way...
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 03/12/2025
Still another month or so to apply to work with me: predicting the crystals and their properties on Titan!
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 28/11/2025
Actually their webgpu support is better than I'd thought, I was wrong. I'll get it working if I can!
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 28/11/2025
As far as I know ggml doesn’t have webgpu acceleration, but in principle it should absolutely be possible as there are plenty of other wasm and webgpu combinations! Yes I think given my current implementation is single core only and quite slow in wasm it’s not the memory that’ll bottleneck first!
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 28/11/2025
Small enough to conveniently run directly in the browser via WASM… peterspackman.github.io/mlip.cpp/
peterspackman.github.io
mlip.js - ML Interatomic Potentials in the Browser
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 28/11/2025
Great news! Can vouch that it’s a very impressive and stable (and a small model at only about 14MB).
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COSMO Lab @labcosmo.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
📢 PET-MAD is here! 📢 It has been for a while for those who read the #arXiv, but now you get it preciously 💸 typeset by @natcomms.nature.com Take home: unconstrained architecture + good train set choices give you fast, accurate and stable universal MLIP that just works™️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
PET-MAD as a lightweight universal interatomic potential for advanced materials modeling - Nature Communications
PET-MAD is a fast and lightweight universal machine-learning potential, trained on a small but diverse dataset, that delivers near-quantum accuracy in atomistic simulations for both organic and inorga...
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 28/11/2025
This is all using the PET-MAD model (github.com/lab-cosmo/pe...). Wouldn't call my code production ready or anything but it's nice to see what's possible in a web browser.
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 28/11/2025
The latest in my wasm experiments is getting an MLIP running, so you can watch some molecules (or crystals, if you have more patience) wiggle, all running locally in your web browser on your phone, computer, tablet, wherever! peterspackman.github.io/mlip.cpp/
peterspackman.github.io
mlip.js - ML Interatomic Potentials in the Browser
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 13/11/2025
I've got a post-doctoral research position available at Curtin University (Western Australia) starting 2026. The project involves computational prediction of crystal structures, their growth, and their properties for organic minerals on Titan (moon of Saturn). staff.curtin.edu.au/job-vacancie...
staff.curtin.edu.au
Job vacancies, employment opportunities, academic and professional positions - Careers at Curtin | Curtin University, Perth Australia
Our mission is to transform lives and communities through education and research. Curtin employees form a unique and diverse community committed to innovative research and student learning. Find out a...
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Peter Spackman @crystalexplorer.net · 13/11/2025
If that sounds like something you or someone you know would be interested in, feel free to reach out to peter.spackman@curtin.edu.au with any questions you might have. Or chat to me here!
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