Professor Russell Cowburn, Professor of Nanotechnology, will present his Inaugural Lecture ‘Nanotechnology: challenging chips and crime’.
Abstract: Nanotechnology allows us to modify the properties of materials in a new way, creating functionality that is not possible in larger-scale versions of the same material. This is particularly the case for magnetic materials, where the very simple linear magnetic properties that might exist in the bulk can be tailored and made much more complex once structures approach 100nm in size or less. In this lecture I show how nanometre-scale magnetic materials can be used to build a new generation of microelectronic devices that use both the spin and the charge of the electron. Applications for such devices range from the battlefield through to MP3 players. I conclude the lecture by describing how this research unexpectedly ended up in the formation of a spin-out company which is now selling anti-counterfeiting solutions to brand owners around the world.
Biography: Russell Cowburn obtained his PhD in condensed matter physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. He also spent one year of his postgraduate time at the Universite Paris-Sud in Orsay, France. He subsequently was appointed to a research fellowship at St John’s College Cambridge, which allowed him to work in the Nanoscale Science Laboratory of the Engineering Department. During this time he combined the studies of magnetic materials which he had undertaken during his PhD with emerging nanofabrication techniques and laser optics. In 2000 he was appointed to a Faculty position at Durham University, and was then appointed Professor of Nanotechnology at Imperial College in 2005. He has co-founded two spin out companies, one working in high technology instrumentation for nanoscience and the other using nanotechnology techniques to detect counterfeiting. He leads a large research group studying the application of nanotechnology to a range of real world problems, including the future of computer hardware and the treatment of cancer.
Chair: rofessor Donal Bradley FRS, Head of Department, Department of Physics
Vote of Thanks: Professor Mark Welland FRS, Professor of Nanotechnology, University of Cambridge
Photo Gallery
Dr Mervyn Jones, Prof Russell Cowburn and Prof Sir Peter Knight
Mr Mark McGlad of Ingenia Technology and Prof Russell Cowburn
Prof Cowburn with his laser scanner
Prof Russell Cowburn
Prof and Mrs Russell Cowburn, family and friends
All photos taken by Meilin Sancho