Professor Sir Colin Humphreys, University of Cambridge

Materials scientists can design and create at the atomic level new and improved materials which do not exist in nature. Advanced atomic resolution electron microscopy is essential to characterise such materials, which are important both for our wealth and our health. Examples I will give in this talk include gallium nitride LEDs and power electronic devices, which have the potential to save over 20% of our total electricity consumption (and over 20% of carbon emissions from power stations): this would save the US $20,000 million p.a. in electricity costs. Electron microscopy is essential both for research and for the commercial exploitation of such materials and devices.

Biography

Colin Humphreys is Professor of Materials Science and Director of Research in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was educated at Imperial College (BSc) and Cambridge (PhD). He was a Lecturer at Oxford and a Professor in Liverpool before coming to Cambridge. He founded and directs the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride (GaN). He founded a spin-off company, CamGaN, to exploit the research of his group on low-cost LEDs for home and office lighting. The company was acquired in February 2012 by Plessey, which is now manufacturing LEDs based on this technology at their factory in Plymouth, UK. He founded and directs the Cambridge/Rolls-Royce Centre for Advanced Materials for Aerospace. Materials developed by this Centre are now flying in Rolls-Royce engines. He has given public lectures on science throughout the world. He has received national and international medals for his research in electron diffraction and microscopy and in GaN. He is also the author of The Miracles of Exodus and The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus. He was Knighted in 2010 for services to science.