Michael Finnis

Michael W. Finnis is a British materials scientist who is Professor of Theory and Simulation of Materials at Imperial College London. He uses atomic-scale computation to understand atomic interactions, grain boundary embrittlement and open system thermodynamics. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021, and awarded the Institute of Physics Dirac Medal in 2022.

Early life and education Finnis was born in Margate. He studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, where he specialised in theoretical physics. He remained in Cambridge for his doctoral research, working with Volker Heine on condensed matter physics. His PhD investigated interatomic forces in simple metals. He started working on tight-binding models, and that the total bonding energy of transition metals scaled with the square root of the coordination number (z). Finnis eventually moved to the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, where he started working on the science of interfaces.

In 2006, Finnis joined Imperial College London, where he co-founded the Thomas Young Centre for the Theory and Simulation of Materials. His research involves atom-scale computational models to understand the electronic and optical properties of materials.

Awards and honours 2005 Institute of Physics Born Medal 2017 Institute of Physics Nevill Mott Medal 2021 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

Selected publications