Dr Nim Benshalom

Research and Teaching

Few disciplines can boast as many Nobel Prizes as crystallography. From the discovery of X-ray diffraction in 1912, to Oxford’s own Dorothy Hodgkin’s work on penicillin (1945), the elucidation of DNA’s double helix (1953), and the development of neutron scattering (1948), the field has shaped modern science.

I use X-ray radiation to investigate how magnetic properties in crystals change with temperature. While diffraction techniques are typically applied to probe the equilibrium, or “static,” structure of a crystal, they can also reveal deviations from the average, so long as those deviations are not random. This is precisely the case for temperature-induced vibrations, which take on a wave-like form. In my research, I am working to measure, for the first time, the interaction between magnetic and structural waves using X-rays.

Although my work is fundamental in nature, understanding temperature-dependent magnetism has immediate implications: it may enable control over magnetic phase transitions and help pave the way for new materials in information storage technologies.

Alongside research, I currently tutor condensed matter physics at college and have previously taught supplementary quantum mechanics in the chemistry department. I am also committed to public engagement with science, having worked at the Jerusalem Science Museum and the Davidson Institute of Science Education.