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Malcolm F. CollinsProfessor Emeritus Department of Physics and Astronomy Office: ABB-274 Phone: (905) 525-9140 x24172 (ABB) |
Malcolm Collins did his undergraduate and graduate work at Cambridge University. After eight years as a staff member of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in England, he moved to McMaster University in 1969, where he has been an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1970-72) and Chair of the Physics Department (1976-82). He was the Director of the McMaster Nuclear Reactor from 1987-1994. He has been Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering since 1996. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Solid State Communications.
Dr. Collins' research work has been mainly in the field of neutron scattering. This work requires the use of the nuclear reactor at Chalk River or at NIST. Neutron scattering is the prime tool for determining magnetic order in solids. Dr. Collins' recent work is uncovering novel magnetic phases and unusual phase transitions in materials with competing magnetic interactions. This competition, known as frustration, changes the physics of magnetic systems. Dr. Collins is involved in investigating such effects in triangular antiferromagnets RbMnBr3 and KNiCl3 and in an antiferromagnet on a Kagomé lattice. Dr. Collins is also working on the glass transition; that is the changes that take place when a super-cooled liquid freezes to form a glass.
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