Sam Cross receives 2025 Thesis Prize from the Institute of Physics Superconductivity Group

Sam Cross awarded the 2025 IOP Superconductivity Group Thesis Prize. Left to Right: Dr Andreas Rost (IOP Superconductivity Group secretary), Dr Sam Cross and Dr Sven Friedemann (PhD Supervisor).

1 July 2025

Congratulations to Dr. Sam Cross from our Quantum & Soft Matter research theme, who has been awarded the 2025 Institute of Physics Superconductivity Group Thesis Prize. The prize is awarded to the author of the PhD thesis that makes the strongest contribution to the understanding of superconductivity within a given year.

Sam’s thesis, ‘Electrical Transport Studies of Superconductors at Extreme Conditions’ detailed experimental studies of novel high-temperature superconductors at extreme pressures (exceeding 1 million atmospheres), and their characterisation at low temperatures and in high magnetic fields. In particular, Sam made the first discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in a novel high-pressure phase of lanthanum hydride which was published in 2024: Phys. Rev. B 109, L020503 (2024), as well as measuring quantum oscillations in the charge-density wave superconductor NbSe2 under pressure. Sam delivered a prize talk at the Condensed Matter and Quantum Materials (CMQM) conference held in Bristol in June 2025.

The thesis was supervised by Dr. Sven Friedemann and Prof. Tony Carrington. Sam is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Quantum and Soft Matter Group where he continues to work on hydride superconductors at extreme conditions.

Further information

To read Dr. Sam Cross' thesis, please follow the below link:

Electrical Transport Studies of Superconductors at Extreme Conditions