P r o f K i s h...

P r o f K i s h a n D h o l a k i a w i n s O S A W o o d Aw a r d
The Optical Society of America (OSA) has named our Professor Kishan Dholakia as the 2016 recipient of its
prestigious R.W. Wood Prize.
The R.W. Wood Prize was created in 1975 to honour of
R.W. Wood, who was a pivotal contributor to the field of optics
and a pioneer of infrared and ultraviolet photography. It is
awarded for an outstanding discovery, scientific or technological
achievement or invention. The accomplishment for which the
prize is given is measured chiefly by its impact on the field of
optics generally, and therefore the contribution is one that opens
a new era of research or significantly expands an established one.
This prize was endowed by the Xerox Corporation.
The OSA award committee reviews nominations for each award,
including curriculum vitae, four letters of recommendations and a
statement of career accomplishment related to the award criteria, and presents its recommendations to the
OSA Board of Directors.
Professor Dholakia received this recognition for his pioneering research into optical micromanipulation using
shaped light for interdisciplinary photonics-based applications. The optical manipulation refers to using light
beams to pick up and move small objects, which has applications in medicine, physics, and other areas. By
shaping light beams into special intensity distributions and combining this with special microscopes his team
has been able to show a wide variety of interesting and useful effects.
Elizabeth Rogan, CEO of The Optical Society, said: “The recipients of this year’s awards are paving the way to
seminal discoveries which contribute to a greater level of understanding of the optical sciences. OSA is
incredibly pleased to acknowledge their dedication and celebrates their success.”
Professor Dholakia said: "It is a real honour to receive this recognition. I have always been fortunate to have
interacted with outstanding colleagues, research fellows and students at St Andrews and worldwide. The
science being recognised by this award is really a team effort and praise must also go to them. I hope to build
on this wonderful accolade - the future is bright."
OSA Announcement of 2016 prizes
Prof Dholakia's research group
Healing Light
A new technique which delivers light deeper into human tissue than previously possible has been developed
by researchers in our School and at Harvard Medical School. The new method, published in the journal
Nature Communications, could help heal wounds faster and treat tumours more efficiently.
Through a process called photochemical tissue bonding, light is applied to a wound to stimulate healing. Until
now this technique has been limited to treating superficial wounds. The researchers set out to develop a
technology for tissue repair that would allow this method to be applied deeper in the human body. The
international team found a way to make biodegradable optical fibres which can be inserted into the body to
deliver light to heal internal wounds locally, for example after surgery.
Bioabsorbable optical waveguides, shown above glowing
green, can be implanted into tissue to deliver light deeper and more effectively. After use, there is no need for
removal as the waveguide disappears over time.
Traditionally, fibre-optic devices or catheters have been fabricated from glass or
plastic and remain in the body permanently or until removed through further
surgical intervention. However, the St Andrews-Harvard research team shows
how fibres can be made from materials that will be reabsorbed into the body,
eliminating the need for removal and the risk of damaging the newly-repaired
tissue. This advancement will give doctors the power to heal from within without
scarring.
Professor Malte Gather, of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University
of St Andrews, predicts that this breakthrough could have dramatic implications in
medicine. He said: “A variety of optical techniques, such as photochemical tissue bonding and photodynamic
therapy, require efficient delivery of light deep into tissues, but the current limited penetration of light in
tissue constitutes a serious constraint in clinical use.
“Having biocompatible and bioabsorbable optical components may transform photomedicine from a
discipline where light is predominantly applied externally, to a new paradigm based on tissue-integrated and
precisely controlled delivery and collection of light.”
The research could also find application in a variety of other areas, such as long-term photodynamic therapy
(PDT) for cancer treatment, as well as implanted endoscopy after surgery for repeated imaging and
monitoring of the healing process.
Paper in Nature Communications
STV News
Article in the Scotsman
Prof Gather's research web pages
2
New Hope for Kidney Patients
A discovery, published in the journal Biomedical Optics Express, could allow
doctors to diagnose kidney diseases faster and for less cost – using a new
super-resolution microscope adapted by Prof Kishan Dholakia and his team
in our School.
The breakthrough, achieved in collaboration with the Department of
Pathology at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, New York, could allow doctors a more efficient method for
diagnosing nephrotic syndrome in the kidney – a group of debilitating and
sometimes lethal diseases in which the kidney loses its ability to retain
proteins in the blood, which are then carried into the urine.
Until now detection and treatment have relied on the use of an expensive
and time-consuming electron microscope. Now the St Andrews-NY team has
developed an alternative light microscope which uses a patterned lightsource to overcome physical laws of diffraction – allowing a doubling in what
had been considered the maximum resolution possible using this technology, ie the ability to see very small
structures.
Images of ultra-fine,
diagnostically relevant
features of [kidney/
nephrotic] disease
(foot processes; FP)
imaged by the new
method (left)
compared against
traditional electron
microcscopy (right).
The sides of the
superimposed triangle
are about 1
micrometre in length.
Members of the research team include Jonathan Nylk, Elaine C Campbell, Frank J Gunn-Moore and
Michael B Prystowsky.
To read more on this story see http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/news/Panda_news/
kd_kidnyemic_04_02_16.php
Prof Dholakia's research pages
Montefiore Medical Center
School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews
3
Max Planck Research School in Quantum Materials
The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews is a founding member of the UK’s first
international Max Planck Research School in the natural sciences.
The International Max Planck Research School on Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials (IMPRS-CPQM),
which was approved recently by the Max Planck Society, has just begun recruiting and will be looking into the
exciting properties of materials where interactions
between electrons often lead to unexpected
phenomena.
The Max Planck Research School is headed overall by
Prof Andy Mackenzie based at the Max Planck Institute
for the Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, in
partnership with Dr Peter Wahl based at the School of
Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews.
It will recruit up to 40 PhD students over the next four
years, to work on collaborative projects surrounding the
fascinating properties of quantum materials. It will link
leading research groups from the University of
St Andrews with partners in Germany, and provide
unique training opportunities for PhD students. By
working with this model, the IMPRS-CPQM can combine
the strengths of the sites to create an outstanding range
of facilities and research leaders. It builds on recent
investment at the University of St Andrews in ultra-low vibration laboratories as well as in novel growth
equipment enabling the design of materials at the atomic scale.
The new IMPRS is open for applications now, with the first cohort of students to be recruited for Autumn 2016.
See www.imprs-cpqm.mpg.de for more details of available projects and how to apply.
The International Max Planck Research School on Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials
Dr Peter Wahl's research pages at St Andrews
PandA Website
There have been a couple of new links put onto the School webpage:
First is a link to the Who’s Who poster, which is only accessible to people within the school, so you don’t need to run
round to the posters anymore when you just can’t put that name to the face! This will be updated in the Autumn at
the same time as the posters.
Second one is the PandA Marketplace, which again is accessible to only school people, so if you are looking
for accommodation, have somewhere you’d like to rent out, looking for a flat share, or for example that bike
has been sitting around for ages and collecting dust, then list it on the Marketplace, someone here may be looking for one.
Email me at wc23 and I’ll include it on the page. Please let me know when the ad
can come down, don’t want it being full of out of date items.
Both links are available on the Staff and Students page – Who’s Who under Contact
Details and PandA Marketplace within Staff Resources or scan the QR code.
4
S c i e n c e , S c e n e r y a n d S h i pw r e c k i n t h e S o u t h
Dr Tom Brown
On the 2 January 2016, whilst many were still recovering from their
New Year celebrations, I departed from Glasgow Airport on route for
Hobart, Tasmania to join the Australian research ship Aurora Australis
as part of a 50 strong marine science team to take part in the K-Axis
voyage (www.k-axis.voyage.) The goal of this project was to
investigate an area of unusual marine life production in the East
Antarctic region. There is a
strong local connection as
much of this area had only
previously been explored by
the RRS Discovery which is now dry docked in Dundee during the
BANZAR expedition in 1929! As my contribution, I was taking an
Optical Coherence Tomorgraphy (OCT) system developed within the
School of Physics and Astronomy and using this to provide high
resolution structural images of Antarctic Krill, one of the world’s most
important food resources. Of particular interest was the potential to
use advanced imaging techniques to understand the effects that global climate change and ocean acidifcation
were having on this species.
After a week or so of training, kit issuing and some delays,
we finally departed Hobart on 11/01. Travelling south for
around 10 days right through the Roaring Forties and the
Furious Fifties gave me the chance to set up and test the
OCT system. This was a particularly interesting experience
for those of us used to conducting optics experiments in
very stable labs and vibrationally isolated optical tables.
The lab I was in was often moving up and down by meters
at a time as the ship was rolling by 40 degrees in the rough
weather we encountered. We sighted our first icebergs on
19/01, when I also got to meet King Neptune as we moved
through 60S.
Our science programme began on 21/01 and for the next 30 days my
working day started at 1030 and finished at midnight as we conducted
operations continuously in two shifts 24 hrs a day. Fortunately, this was not
one of my TRAC weeks! At each of our 40 science station we carried out a
range of experiments from stratified trawling down to 1000m to lowering
oceanography experiments to within 5 m of the seabed (not bad considering
we were often in over 4000m of water.) As well as conducting my imaging
experiments I was also in charge of the acoustic data measurements on my
watch and ran the targeted trawling for live Krill that took place whenever
opportunities existed. During this period I managed
to collect >100 GB of high quality OCT data without
any major system problems – a great testament to
all of those in St Andrews who had been in charge of
developing the system. Along the way we saw vast
amounts of wildlife including up to 100 humpback
whales surrounding the ship as we fished one of the
largest swarms of Krill that has ever been observed
in E Antarctic waters.
5
On 20/02, we arrived at Mawson Station (67 36S 62 52E) which
lies underneath a large group of mountains that stick up from
beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. We spent the next few days
resupplying the base for the next year with the cargo we were
carrying. This was almost finished when a massive blizzard
swept down from the ice sheet (winds >200 km/h) and broke all
of the mooring lines on the ship which
was blown onto nearby rocks and the
hull severely damaged. Due to the
severe weather we were unable to
leave the ship for the following 48 hrs
until finally we were taken off by boat
and landed back at Mawson. The ship
was assessed and the damage was too bad to allow it to carry passengers back to
Australia so we now had to await evacuation from Antarctica “by other means.” Whilst
the complex plan was put in place I had time to explore Mawson station and even had
a day trip up to the mountains on the plateau itself. After a week or so at Mawson, the
journey back to Australia began with a helicopter flight onto the Japanese naval
icebreaker Shirase. We then spent 6 days travelling around 2500 km on the Shirase
before being flown by helicopter to the Australian base at Casey (66 17S 110 32E.)
At Casey we had to wait for the weather to be right before we could be driven the 80 km to an ice runway to
be flown directly back to Tasmania in an A319 jet. After a week or so at Casey, everything looked right for
flying home so we were taken in a convoy of snow mobiles to the airfield where we waited in the -27C
temperature for our plane to arrive. Finally, the aircraft came into sight and appeared to do a pass over the
airfield before disappearing. It turned out there was a problem with the aircraft and it wouldn’t land and
headed back to Australia without us. We then had to spend another 2.5 uncomfortable hours bouncing back
to station with some disappointed people!
After another couple of days, we heard
that an unexpected weather window had
opened up and that we had to leave the
station at 0500 the following morning to
head back to the airfield. This time the
plane did land and a 4.5 hour flight saw
us landing back into the warmth of a
Tasmanian summer day.
At the moment, I’m still waiting to get my experimental kit and data back off the ship where we left in haste,
but this was a truly memorable trip with some great fellow scientists, stunning landscapes and amazing
animals. This research unlike anything I’ve ever done before and I’d recommend it to anyone – only try your
hardest not to crash the ship!
My thanks go to the EPSRC and Australian Antarctic Division for their funding, my colleagues of the V3 Marine
Science Expedition and all of the Australian Antarctic expeditioners who made me feel so welcome and to all in
School of Physics and Astronomy who allowed me to take up the trip when it was offered and then dealt with
my random return dates!
6
Voices of the Future 2016
On the 2nd of March, Dr Duncan Forgan (pictured on the far right) joined scientists from a range of UK Science
organisations to question MPs and ministers about key issues in science policy.
Dr Forgan represented the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews at the annual Voices of
the Future event, where scientists take committee seats in Westminster, while key players in Parliament take
the witness seats. This reversal of the normal select committee format aims to engage scientists in the political
process, as well as emphasising the importance of evidence-based decision making in government.
Those present engaged with The Speaker of the House, John Bercow MP; Government Chief Scientific Advisor,
Sir Mark Walport; the Minister of State for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson MP; Shadow Minister for
Business, Innovation and Skills, Yvonne Fovargue MP as well as members of the House of Commons Science
and Technology Committee.
Participants also heard a message from Major Tim Peake on the International Space Station. From there he
answered two questions posed to him by participants.
A range of topics were discussed including evidence-based policy making, the impact of the EU on UK science
and technology; STEM education and the recruitment and retention of science and maths teachers; the
growing danger of antimicrobial resistance; open data; the obesity epidemic; genetic engineering; global
warming, fracking and energy policy; and the challenges of aligning politicians' goals and scientists' goals.
https://www.facebook.com/School-of-Physics-and-Astronomy-University-of-St-Andrews453891687993483
Follow the Observatory on
https://www.facebook.com/StAndrewsObservatory
7
@jgtelescope
Students build their ow n wave machine
Our first and second year courses have a number of
demonstrations and simulations in them to help explain
the phenomena involved. But in the current second year
waves course things have got a stage more advanced in
terms of student involvement, with a group of second
year students choosing to build their own wave machine.
Alisa, Elise, Imogen, and Adam had spent some time
building a wave machine using gaffer-tape as the elastic
medium and jelly-babies and skewers for the main
masses.
They are pictured here after demonstrating wave
reflections and standing waves to the rest of the class.
Apparently the biggest difficulty in making their wave
machine was ensuring that their friends resisted the
temptation to eat the jelly babies!
Second-year coordinator and course instructor
Dr Paul Cruickshank was delighted at this student initiative
and was happy to have the students demonstrate various
aspects of wave physics during their lecture. Students
were also benefitted from him bringing in his electric
guitar to illustrate some aspects of standing waves.
School of Physics and Astronomy
Physics 2B module synopsis
The Scottish Exoplanet / Brown Dwarf Spring meeting 2016
which will be held in the MUSA Learning Loft at the University of St Andrews.
Date: 25 April 2016
This is the third meeting in a series of bi-annual, informal meetings that will alternate
between the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh.
http://sebd3.sciencesconf.org/
8
Dr Hooley an IOP Explainer
The School's Dr Chris Hooley was invited by the UK Institute of Physics (IOP)
to explain in 100 seconds what is a topological insulator. This short video now
features on the IOP website.
Topological insulators are curious materials that are electrical insulators in
the bulk of the material, but which can conduct electricity on their surface via
interesting surface electronic states. As well as being of interest for probing
the science of materials and electrical conduction, these materials may have
application in quantum computation.
Dr Hooley's research covers a range of topics in the theory of condensed
matter physics, including quantum many body physics, ultracold atomic
gases, complex temperatures, and non-equilibrium Kondo models.
Although on research leave this session, he has enthusiastically contributed
to our teaching programme across the levels, and has a reputation for being able to explore and explain a
wide range of physics.
IOP Video featuring Chris Hooley
Research themes in condensed matter physics at St Andrews
Engineering Quantum Matter Summer Workshop
The TOPNES research programme is holding a workshop entitled ‘Engineering Quantum Matter – From
Understanding to Control’ at the Byre Theatre from 8-10 June 2016.
This event is being organised by Peter Wahl, Jonathan Keeling,
Phil King, Jean-Philippe Reid and Sarah Webster from the TOPNES
group in St Andrews and aims to bring together theorists and
experimentalists to discuss how engineered quantum states can
be exploited and designed to advance our current understanding
and underpin future technologies.
Additional funding has been secured from the International
Max Planck Partnership and the Institute for Complex Adaptive
Matter, enabling an exciting list of international speakers to be
invited. It is expected that over 100 delegates from the UK and
abroad will attend the workshop. All details including confirmed
speakers and online registration are available at
www.eqm2016.co.uk. Please contact Sarah Webster (sjw25) for
details of the internal registration process.
9
Major industry boost for award -winning Lightpath technology
Scottish research and development company PhotoSynergy Ltd (PSL) is
enjoying a hat trick of successes as a major operator and two subsea
service companies push the envelope to further the safety of their
diving personnel and increase efficiencies in the subsea sector.
The North Sea Operator has, for the first time, included PSL’s
LIGHTPATH technology in its diving operations and management
guidance document, which aims to ensure compliance with latest
legislation and industry best practice.
Meanwhile, leading international inspection, repair and maintenance
(IRM) companies Harkand and Bibby Offshore have announced their
continuing support for PSL’s LIGHTPATH range of products, which offer
an innovative technical solution to sectors, including the challenging and hazardous subsea environment,
where safety of life is paramount.
Winner of the Subsea UK Innovation for Safety Award 2014, LIGHTPATH is a side-emitting flexible fibre that
projects a continuous and flexible line of light that carries no electrical power and has a life expectancy of five
years.
PSL today (Thursday, February 4) launched the latest in its portfolio of subsea products – the SLS2000 – which
was developed following feedback from divers and their teams, providing the option to illuminate the dive
umbilical from the diver end.
It was produced following requests from industry for a minimal-sized light source which would not impede
the diver during his work. A small, compact unit at just 30mm in diameter and 70mm long, it was designed to
provide a light source to saturation divers using an LED attached to the umbilical at the diver’s end.
Operational sea trials of the unit – which can be used in both saturation and air diving – are planned with
existing clients following successful competition of final in-house tests and third party pressure testing.
PSL Director Don Walker said: “The recognition of the increased safety afforded to divers utilising the
LIGHTPATH umbilical lighting concept by these companies marks a significant step for PSL, and we very much
appreciate their support.
PhotoSynergy Ltd
For more history of the
Lightpath see http://
scistand.com/2016/lightpath-st
-andrews/
Photosynergy stand at Expo’16
10
Quantum dot solar cells
Recent work performed in Prof Ifor Samuel’s research group on
quantum dot sensitized solar cells has been published in the
RSC Journal of Materials Chemistry A which focusses on
materials for energy and sustainability. This research has been
widely recognised and selected for the journal front cover.
Current quantum dot solar cells use n-type materials which
have a major drawback of slower hole transfer than electron
transfer which leads to high charge recombination. Efficient ptype materials are very desirable for use in combination n-type
materials but have so far lagged far behind. We have addressed
this challenge and report efficient p-type (inverted) QD
sensitized cells with non-toxic ternary quantum dots of CuInS2
and CuInSxSe2-x with various ligands and surface passivation.
This not only combines the advantages of conventional QD cells
with p-type dye sensitized configurations but also solves the
problem of slow hole transfer rate. From our detailed
photophysical study, we found that hole transfer rate is timedependent and cannot be determined using conventional
approach of monoexponential decay. The average hole transfer
rate achieved (108 s-1) in such systems is comparable to electron injection rates in conventional n-type QD
assemblies. Inverted solar cells fabricated with various QDs demonstrate excellent power conversion
efficiencies of up to 1.25%, which is 4 times higher than the best values for previous inverted QD sensitized
cells.
The picture shows that in our solar cell after light absorption the QDs inject a hole into a nanostructured
p-type wide band gap semiconductor (NiO), while the electron is transferred to the redox electrolyte.
EU Marie Skłodow ska-Curie Individual Fellow ship
Caroline Murawski has recently received an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. The
fellowship will fund her for two years to ‘enhance her career development and prospects by working abroad’.
Caroline has done a PhD on organic LEDs and during her fellowship will be looking at novel uses of OLEDs in
biophotonics. In particular, she will develop high-brightness OLEDs to stimulate neuronal networks with light.
In contrast to existing light sources, OLEDs will enable flexible and biocompatible stimulation of cells with an
unprecedented spatial resolution. With this new technology, neuroscientists and physicians may gain new
insight into the functioning of the brain and may better understand neurological diseases.
11
Science Discovery Day 5th March 2016
The University held its annual Science Discovery/Family Fun Day on Saturday 5th March.
There were loads of things going on throughout the day from all aspects of the Sciences—the Planetarium,
build your own comet, giant bubbles, volcanos, electronic rainbows, gyroscopes, inflating marshmallows and
loads more. It was great to see many hundreds of visitors of all ages enjoy the day.
Many thanks to Dr Paul Cruickshank and Prof Ian Bonnell for coordinating the event, all the students and staff
from all the schools for their hard work and all the visitors who made it all worthwhile.
Photos by Wendy Clark.
Next year’s Science Discovery Day is on Saturday 4th March 2017—Mark it in your diaries, whether you’re going to come along and
help or come as a visitor.
12
Staff and Student News
Joining since our last Newsletter are:
Research Fellows:
Ivan Gusachenko
Finance Assistant:
Poppy Nicholson
Arunandan Kumar
Welcome to ..
Poppy Nicholson, our new Finance Assistant, who started with us in March.
Poppy has a number of years of experience in HR and Payroll. She worked with the University in
2009 in the HR department, while studying with the Open University from which she graduated in
2014 with a BA (Open). She progressed from there to her HR career and branching out to Payroll
and Finance.
Please pop in and say hello.
Farewell to ..
Reg originally joined the University in 1966 as a Junior Technician in the Physics Department's
mechanical engineering workshop. After a break of 4 years at the Scottish College of Textiles, he
returned to St Andrews in June 1975 as the School's cryogenics technician. As one of the longest
serving Technicians in the University, and the last Technician who worked at ‘Edgecliffe’ when the
School was located there, Reg has seen many changes over the years and has many interesting
tales to tell! Reg has personally produced well over a million litres of liquid helium and nitrogen
during his career, and at one time was supplying customers from Aberdeen to Paisley! He was
instrumental in the installation of our current Linde Helium Liquefier in 2002, one of only a few in
the UK, and became very proud of the system he managed and operated. His knowledge of
Cryogenics developed over many years and more recently he has been passing this on to the new
team following in his footsteps. Reg was also the School’s Health & Safety Co-ordinator for many years, and was a
member of the Ethics Committee.
Having stepped back from his full time position at the end of February 2015, Reg was re-engaged in a part-time roll to
ensure the new team were fully trained in all aspects of the operations of the cryogenics facility. He retired fully at the
end of March 2016, leaving a legacy that will be challenging to follow.
We all wish Reg the very best in his retirement and thank him for his many years of service to the
School and the University.
Our CDT Manager, Mrs Christine Edwards, will be retiring at the end of March this year. Christine
has been with us from the CM-CDT's inception and played a pivotal role in setting up the centre and
shaping how it operates today. Her efficient and professional approach to managing its operations,
and her willingness to go “above-and-beyond”, has been enormously beneficial to each and every
one of us, and I know that you will join me in wishing her all the best for her upcoming retirement.
William Whelan-Curtin who leaves to go to the Tyndall Institute in Cork.
And Nathalie Thureau, who moves on to
pastures new
We wish them all every success in the future.
13
Au r o r a 6 M a r c h 2 0 1 6
The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, put on a good display on 6th March
Dr Paul Cruickshank, Strathkinness Road
Alex Thompson , St Andrews
Joe Llama, the Quad - as seen on the
ITV lunchtime news!
14
T h i s ye a r ’ s n e w l i t t l e P a n d A’ s
Congratulations to Susan and Roman Spesyvtsev
on the birth of their daughter Anna on 12th February
Also to Liz and Phil King on the birth of
their daughter Eleanor on 5th March
And finally on 16th March, Fiona Mary Elizabeth, a
daughter to Emma and Jonny Nylk
15
Al u m n i N e w s
This is a new section for our quarterly newsletter, so we’d love to hear what our Alumni are up to. Email your story to
[email protected]
Springer Thesis Award
Congratulations to Raphaëlle Haywood, whose PhD thesis "Hide and Seek: Radial-velocity
searches for planets around active stars” has been selected for a Springer Thesis Award. Her
thesis will be published as part of the Springer theses collection of outstanding dissertations
from high-ranking university research departments in the physical sciences and engineering
worldwide.
Since finishing her PhD, Raphaëlle has taken up a postdoctoral position at the Harvard College
Observatory, where she leads the target selection team for the HARPS-North project to
determine masses of transiting planets detected with K2, NASA’s re-purposed mission for the
Kepler spacecraft. She also coordinates the data analysis effort for the HARPS-North solar
telescope on La Palma, monitoring “Sun-as-a-star” radial velocity variations caused by
magnetic activity.
Funding Council appoints new university
research and innovation champion
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has appointed its new Director of Research and Innovation.
Dr Stuart Fancey is a graduate of the University of St Andrews and of Heriot-Watt University. He is a physicist
whose career has taken him from cutting edge science in laboratory to the commercial world and, latterly, to
the application of his experience to policy and strategy for supporting Scotland’s universities and colleges.
Stuart began his career carrying out research in photonics at Heriot-Watt and
subsequently held an EU Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Hagen,
Germany. In 2002, Stuart helped to establish a hi- tech start-up company in
Livingston, Helia Photonics Limited, where he was instrumental in setting up
production facilities and building the initial client base.
Stuart joined the Scottish Funding Council in 2005 and played a leading part in
the establishment of Scottish University Research Pools. These groundbreaking clusters of world-leading researchers are a Scottish success story and
have grown into a £150 million programme of collaborations that has been
imitated in countries around the world.
Stuart is also central to the Scottish Funding Council’s current £120 million
investment in Scottish Innovation Centres. Fusing industry leadership,
commercial knowledge and the specialist expertise of universities across Scotland required high levels of
negotiation and direction. He has supported Scotland’s world-leading university-business innovation service,
Interface, which has helped Scottish universities to strengthen over 1,200 small businesses through
innovation.
Speaking about his appointment, Stuart said: “This is an incredibly exciting role which offers the chance to
champion research in Scotland”.
To read more on this go to http://www.sfc.ac.uk/communications/news/2016/NewResearchChampion.aspx
16
Forthcoming Colloquia Talks
See http://talks.st-andrews.ac.uk/show/index/5 or the Colloquium Board in the foyer for up-to-date details
Date
Speaker
From
8th April
Prof Cait MacPhee
University of Edinburgh, Biomolecular Physics
15th April
Prof Tim Harries
University of Exeter, Astronomy
22nd April
Prof Doug Lin
University of California, Santa Cruz
Grants
For the period 1st October – 1 January 2016
Name
Sponsor
Project Title
Award Amount
Ifor Samuel
Photobiology Trust Fund
Photobiology
Kishan Dholakia
European Commission
H2020 MSCA Fellowship 2015 (Ivan Gusachenko)
VOIDTRAP
£130,303.20
Ifor Samuel
European Commission
H2020 MSCA Fellowship (Caroline Morawski)
£130,303.20
Kishan Dholakia
Technology Strategy Board
Airy Light Sheet Microscopy for Neurological Imaging
£45,000.00
Ifor Samuel
EPSRC
The use of creative art for explaining organic semiconductors
£14,100.00
Ifor Samuel
EPSRC
Wearable organic optoelectronic sensors
£26,050.00
Graham Turnbull
EPSRC
An Optical Sensor Platform for Detection of Explosive Remnants of War-InField Prototype Optimisation and End-User Engagemnet
£38,963.00
Michael Mazilu
EPSRC
Single Detector Compressive Imaging
£18,671.00
Phil King
The Leverhulme Trust
Philip Leverhulme Prize Nomination
£42,050.00
£100,000.00
Next Newsletter
The newsletter is compiled by Wendy Clark.
If you’d like to suggest an item for inclusion in the next
newsletter, please contact Wendy on
[email protected] by 17th June 2016.
17