Materials Sciences

Committee Chair

Mr Steve Metcalfe, Carl Zeiss

After a government (MOD) apprenticeship and qualifying as an electronics engineer, Steve has worked with optical microscopes for the past 30 years. He ran his own imaging company, for a number of years, in the late 1980’s developing innovative imaging products for the optical microscopy arena and scientific instruments for academic, industry and research. Subsequently becoming a European Product Manager for Microscopy and Imaging products from the materials sample preparation company, Buehler. Steve has specialised in materials microscopy with the Carl Zeiss range of products for the last 10 years, and now heads the Materials Microscopy Division of Carl Zeiss

Committee Vice-Chair

Dr Rebecca Higginson, University of Loughborough, UK

Rebecca is a Senior Lecturer in Metallurgy in the Department of Materials. Her current research considers the study of microstructural development in metals and composites. Her group has carried out extensive studies on the high temperature oxidation of ferrous alloys. She co-ran an RMS 1-day meeting “Microstructure of High Temperature Oxidation” in 2007. Other work includes microstructural development in hologramatic laser welding, interpenetrating composites, energy materials & ultrasonic consolidation.

Honorary Secretary

Mr Eric Bennett, National Physical Laboratory, UK

Dr Gavin Bell, University of Warwick, UK

Gavin is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. He works in the broad area of surface science, particularly on semiconducting and magnetic thin films, epitaxial growth and surface structure. He specialises in scanning probe microscopy of thin films, including in vacuo measurements during epitaxial growth. Electron microscopy (SEM, TEM and SPLEEM – spin polarised low energy electron microscopy) are also important characterisation tools for these materials.

Dr Julie Gough, University of Manchester, UK

Julie is Reader in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering and currently a Royal Academy of Engineering/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow. She researches cell interactions with a variety of biomaterials and scaffolds. Julie has been working in the field of Biomaterials since her PhD at the University of Nottingham.

Julie’s research is very wide ranging but one focus is imaging cell interactions with materials using a variety of microscopy techniques, particularly confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Mr Owen Green, University of Oxford, UK

Owen has worked in Earth Science Departments for over 35 years. He has been at the University of Oxford since 1989. Specialist interests include sample preparation techniques and protocols, especially light and scanning electron microscopy applicable to palaeobiology, and specifically applications in micropalaeontology. He is the author of A manual of Practical Laboratory and Field Techniques in Palaeobiology.

Dr Stephen McVitie, University of Glasgow, UK

Stephen is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Physics & Astronomy.

His research interests include the development of magnetic imaging techniques using electron microscopy and magnetic force microscopy, and Micromagnetic characterisation of magnetic thin films.

Mr Jean-Yves Mugnier, RSSL / Mondelēz food research centre

Jean-Yves is a senior scientist in the microscopy department at Reading Scientific Services Limited (globally known as RSSL) and also HQ for Mondelēz international’s cutting edge food research. His work over the last 15 years has covered a broad remit of scientific disciplines but mainly centred on materials science and food technology, using a variety of techniques but with particular focus on structural microscopy, spectroscopy and X-ray microtomography. His specialist interests include cryogenic techniques applied to hydrated and oil based materials (emulsions, colloidal compound food systems, plant material etc).

Mr Gary Nichols, Pfizer Global R&D

Gary applies a combination of light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques to investigate and understand the physicochemical properties of materials used during the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. I am passionate about encouraging colleagues to use polarized light microscopy as a rapid and highly informative technique to support project progression and to troubleshoot problems in order to gain knowledge about the properties of raw materials and manufactured products.

Dr Christopher Parmenter, University of Nottingham, UK

Christopher is a Research Officer in Cryogenic Electron Microscopy. His PhD is in polymer chemistry through which he developed skills in Cryo-TEM whilst investigating soft and biological systems. He recently moved into SEM, specifically Cryo-SEM and FIB-SEM of any samples where there is a nano-scale problem to solve or understand. He is keen to meet with other microscopists to further his knowledge of EM & other techniques.

Dr Andrew Scott, University of Leeds, UK

Andrew is a senior lecturer in the Institute for Materials Research. He has extensive experience of a wide range of experimental (advanced electron microscopy, surface analysis, X-ray diffraction) and theoretical (ab-initio materials modelling, crystallography) techniques, acquired in both academia (Leeds, Newcastle, Brunel) and industry (BP Research).

He is secretary of the Materials Chemistry Committee of the IOM3 and a member of the RMS Education and Outreach Committee.