Promotions
On September 1, 2025, James Walsh will receive tenure and be promoted to Associate Professor.Prof. Walsh joined the chemistry department as an Assistant Professor in 2019, beginning his independent career at UMass after working as a postdoc with Danna Freedman at Northwestern University (now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Before that, he earned his Master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Manchester, close to his hometown. During his PhD he worked with Prof. David Collison on the study of magnetic exchange interactions in molecular nanomagnets using electron paramagnetic spectroscopy and magnetometry.
His lab at UMass explores how extremely high pressures can be used to unearth previously undiscovered solid-state materials, targeting phases with bulk properties such as permanent magnetism, superconductivity, and superhardness. His group uses various advanced methods for accessing extremely high pressures, including the diamond anvil cell and an assortment of large-volume hydraulic presses. To study their samples, the Walsh Lab relies on in situ methods such as X-ray diffraction along with a rainbow of spectroscopic methods that allow them to measure structure and properties while at pressure.
His group has published work reporting on a novel synthetic method that brings a much greater level of chemical control to the synthesis of high-pressure phases, as well as a number of papers reporting the discovery of new transition metal carbide phases that have been synthesized at pressure and then recovered to ambient conditions. James maintains an interest in magnetism, focusing not only on the search for new permanent magnet solid-state materials, but also on the development of high-pressure tools to access the exotic and elusive quantum spin liquid state. The Walsh Group has also branched into dynamic compression methods, which allow scientists to shock samples to pressures beyond those found in the core of planets. They recently published results from this project in Nature Communications, showing that the melt curve of nickel at planetary core conditions could be significantly higher than previously believed. He was awarded the NSF CAREER and the ACS PRF in 2023 and was a recipient of the Lilly Teaching Fellowship in 2024.