Joe completed his PhD entitled "Predicting the Interface" at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. This involved a variety of first principles simulations of materials ranging from high throughput studies of constrained interface systems with DFT, and derivation of new approaches combining aspects of empirical potentials and machine learned evolution. 

Within the Hammer group, he is looking to facilitate further the exploration of constrained systems (grain boundaries, surfaces, defects and interfaces) utilising a combination of theoretical approaches.