Rate My Professor Keith McKenna

Professor Keith McKenna is Professor of Computational and Theoretical Physics in the Department of Physics within the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology at the University of York. He obtained his MPhys degree in 2001 and PhD in 2005 from the University of Leeds. Following his doctorate, he held research positions at Tohoku University in Japan and University College London before joining the University of York as a Lecturer in 2011, where he was promoted to Reader in 2016 and to Professor in 2019. McKenna received the Early Career EPSRC Fellowship in 2013. He leads the McKenna Materials Modelling Group and holds key roles including Director of the Centre for Energy Efficient Materials, Translational Theme Lead for Sustainable Energy, and Programme Leader for the Maths and Physics Programme. As a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, he contributes to committees such as the IOP Theory of Condensed Matter group and leads working groups in psi-k and the UK Materials Chemistry Consortium, while serving as UK Management Committee Member for COST Action CA21148 on emerging inorganic chalcogenides for photovoltaics.

McKenna's research employs first-principles and multi-scale computational methods to model properties of surfaces, interfaces, defects, and nanostructures in materials for energy applications, spintronics, and catalysis. His work covers polycrystalline materials like MgO, Sb₂Se₃, HfO₂, Si, and TiO₂; metal-oxide electronics including resistive switching in HfO₂ and spintronic devices; electron and hole trapping via small polarons; and dynamic nanoparticles. He has over 106 publications, including 'Grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials for energy applications: First principles modeling and electron microscopy' (Applied Physics Reviews, 2024), 'Cu–Zn Cation Disorder in Kesterite Cu₂ZnSn(SₓSe₁₋ₓ)₄ Solar Cells' (ACS Energy Letters, 2024), 'Structural and Electronic Reconstruction of Extended Defects in Pnictogen Chalcohalides' (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2026), and the book 'Computational Modeling of Inorganic Nanomaterials'. Current EPSRC-funded projects under his leadership investigate defects in metal halide perovskites, reduced tungsten oxide for energy applications, and crack-tolerant photovoltaics. His contributions have featured on journal covers, such as Journal of Applied Physics for TiN grain boundaries, and advanced atomic-scale understanding through collaborations with experimentalists.