Engineering & Physical Sciences
The Engineering and Physical Sciences section is dedicated to serving the interests of the wide-ranging community of physical scientists and engineers who apply microscopic and focused beam techniques to the study of: atomic and nanoscale phenomena; matters and the properties of matter; physical and chemical processes; the fabrications of devices and products.
The Engineering & Physical Sciences Section represents the interests of the community of physical scientists and engineers who apply microscopy, spectroscopy and focused beam techniques to the study of: atomic and nanoscale phenomena; inorganic and organic matter and its properties; physical and chemical processes; the fabrication of devices and products.
The constitution of the section emphasises the principle of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of physical sciences and engineering. We are explicitly encouraging collaboration between the Physical and the Life Sciences. A programme of meetings, workshops and courses is organised in support of this objective.
The Section Committee has experience using a host of analytical tools including light, electron and scanning microscopies. Scientists and engineers working in this multidisciplinary field are always welcome to contact the Chair or Deputy Chair with suggestions for future conferences or meetings that the section could organise or be involved in. Enthusiastic RMS members with an interest in microscopy and physical sciences or engineering are also encouraged to contact the Committee and assist in our activities.
Take a look at the EPS Committee Report featured in infocus magazine
Download the Engineering & Physical Sciences Section Handbook
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Prof Roland Kröger
Engineering & Physical Sciences Section Chair
University of York
Roland is a Reader at the Department of Physics in York with a strong focus on Nano- and Biomaterials using electron microscopy and other materials characterisation tools. Roland obtained his PhD at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Science and Technology in Braunschweig/Germany and has since built a large expertise in Materials Physics and Materials Science covering diamond thin films, metal/semiconductor nanostructures, nitride based light-emitting devices, metal nanoparticles for biomedical applications and biominerals. In the past years he has increasingly become interested in novel in situ techniques studying processes in liquid environments using aberration corrected electron microscopy.
"There is a lot of scope in bringing together 'traditional' Materials Science and the Life Sciences which is a key aspiration for me as Secretary of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Committee" -
Prof Beverley Inkson
Engineering & Physical Sciences Section Vice Chair
University of Sheffield
Beverley Inkson is Professor of Nanomaterials in The Dept of Materials Science and Engineering at The University of Sheffield, where she leads the NanoLAB Centre. Beverley joined the RMS as a PhD student in Electron Microscopy at Cambridge University, and served on the RMS EM section committee while a Royal Society University Research Fellow. She set up the UK NanoFIB network in 2001, and has run numerous Focused Ion Beam scientific meetings joint with the RMS. Beverley’s research interests focus on the use of electron and ion microscopies to quantify the nanomechanical and functional properties of 3D nanomaterials, including developing novel in-situ SPM-TEM and tomographic characterisation methods.
"I am excited to be the first Chair of the new Physical and Engineering Sciences Section, and look forward to developing an exciting programme with active involvement of the new generation of young scientists." -
Dr Anna Baldycheva
Engineering & Physical Sciences Section Deputy Chair
University of Exeter
Dr Anna Baldycheva is an Assistant Professor in 2D Optoelectronic materials in Engineering at the University of Exeter. Dr. Baldycheva’s research group works in the areas of 2D Materials, Si Photonics and Microfluidics. The research interests span from the development of new 2D material based layered and liquid crystal nanocomposites to the engineering of integrated 2D material-Si hybrid electronic-photonic devices for application in communications, energy harvesting, and bio-chemical sensing. Since 2010, Dr. Baldycheva authored and co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers and conference proceedings. -
Dr Trevor Almeida
University of Glasgow
Trevor is a Research Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. After obtaining his PhD in Material Science and holding a one-year fellowship at the University of Nottingham focusing on the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of metal oxide nanoparticles, Trevor spent 4 years as a postdoc in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London. The position at Imperial College included extended visits to world-renowned electron microscopy institutes like the Centre for Electron Nanoscopy in Denmark (1 year) and the Ernst-Ruska Centre in Jülich, Germany (8 months), where he combined in situ TEM experiments with electron holography to visualise changes in magnetisation in magnetic minerals. Trevor then decided to expand his research further to include visualising magnetism of complex nanostructures for technological applications, using the world-leading TEM for a range of Lorentz microscopy techniques at the University of Glasgow. His current research is focussed on combining in situ TEM with magnetic imaging to visualise directly dynamic magnetic processes in thin films and bi-magnetic nanostructures. -
Mr Owen Green
Outreach & Education Committee Secretary
University of Oxford
Owen has worked in the Earth Science Department at the University of Oxford since 1989. He initially, trained and worked in London Colleges as a Geological Technician and Curator of Geological Collections. He is currently a member of both the Engineering and Physical Sciences and Outreach Committees, and has been a co-convenor of the Geo-materials meeting (September 2014), and organised Outreach events on volcanos and mountain building. He has been a member of the Learning Zone team at mmc and an occasional contributor to infocus. His research interests include sample preparation techniques, particularly those involving applications in light and scanning electron microscopy. He is currently undertaking a 2nd edition of A manual of Practical Laboratory and Field Techniques in Palaeobiology (2001, published by Kluwer, now Springer). Other micropalaeontological research includes a study of the last shallow marine carbonate-platform foraminifera of the Tethyan Ocean recorded in rocks from the NW Himalayas 50.5 million years ago as India crashed into Asia, Neoproterozoic agglutinated foraminifera from NW Europe (Avalonia and Baltica), and contextual studies on the world’s oldest (3.5 billion years old) putative microfossils from Western Australia -
Mr Paul Gunning
Smith+Nephew
Paul worked from 1984-2004 at the BBSRC Institute of Food Research (Norwich) in colloid science and microscopy (LM, EM, AFM), looking at emulsion stabilisation and protein/surfactant systems at air/water and o/w interfaces. During his time at IFR Paul gained a Physics HNC at Cambridge Technical College, followed by a research MSc (Salford/NEWI) investigating “Effects of microstructure on growth of pathogenic bacteria”. Paul has worked at Smith+Nephew from 2004. Smith+Nephew is a global medical technology business dedicated to helping improve people's lives. Paul is currently ‘Science Manager, Surface Analysis’ at the company’s corporate Research Centre leading a cross-disciplinary team using SEM/ED-X, LM, Raman and IR microscopy, X-ray micro-CT, contact angle and (occasionally) AFM. Paul’s and his team provide support of Manufacturing (pseudo-forensic troubleshooting, QA and Regulatory/Safety), R&D and Patents/IP functions, with occasional support of Marketing departments. -
Dr Duncan Muir
Cardiff University
Duncan is the Senior Electron Microbeam Technician in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University. His work focuses primarily on scanning electron microscope imaging and microanalysis of geological samples. Duncan studied Geology and gained a PhD at the University of Bristol researching subduction zone volcanism and magma processes. Prior to his postdoctoral studies he worked in the applied fields of Mineral Exploration and Offshore Geotechnics gaining a broad experience of Geosciences. -
Dr Dogan Ozkaya
Johnson Matthey
Dogan Ozkaya is a Senior Principal Scientist and in charge of electron microscopy team in Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, Sonning Common, U.K. He holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge. He carried out postdoctoral research in electron microscopy of various materials in several university departments, including the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and the Materials Department, University of Oxford, before joining Johnson Matthey in 2003. His research interests lie in in electron microscopy of catalysts, metrology of supported nanoparticles, high angle annular dark field imaging and quantification and application of in-situ and ex-situ environmental treatments on catalysts. -
Dr Julia Parker
Diamond Light Source
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Dr Xiangli Zhong
University of Manchester
Xiangli is a Senior Experimental Officer in the School of Materials, University of Manchester. Xiangli obtained her BEng in Metrology Instrumentation and MEng in Materials Science and Engineering. She has registered her PhD since 2006 in National University of Singapore. Before joining University of Manchester, Xiangli worked in EM labs of National University of Singapore, Schimadzu, Westen Digital and ImageTransform. Her current research interest is on focused ion beam (FIB) damage studies and FIB technical development based on her broad experience in EM/IM on various types of materials -
Ms Jane Woolrich
Rolls Royce
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Mr Paul Bennett-Hughes
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Ms Nyree Manoukian
Engineering and Physical Sciences Early Career Representative
University of Oxford
Nyree Manoukian studied archaeology for her undergraduate degree at University of Toronto, and subsequently moved to the UK for her MSc degree in technology and analysis of archaeological materials. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Oxford in archaeological science. Her research interests include the analysis of ceramics using scanning electron microscopy and polarised light microscopy, in order to reverse-engineer the production and use of such materials in the past. Her fieldwork activities focus on the Caucasus region. Research areas include raw materials acquisition, manufacturing techniques, firing regimen, and the use/function of archaeological pottery. Nyree is the EPS Early Career Representative and is keen on organising archaeological science workshops, which integrate various scientific fields explored within RMS. -
Prof Igor Meglinski
Aston University
Igor is a Professor in Biomedical Engineering & Biophotonics at the School of Engineering & Applied Science and School of Life & Health Sciences in Aston University (UK). He is a Chartered Physicist (CPhys), Chartered Engineer (CEng), Fellow of Institute of Physics, Senior Member of IEEE and Fellow of SPIE.His work is focused on the examination of interaction of photonic quantum vortexes with biological tissues, and their components, including cells, cell’s organelles, collagen, etc. He is developing an advanced optical-microscopy biopsy, optical tweezers for cells diagnosis and quantitative polarization-based hyperspectral imaging technique for tissue characterization. His particular interest is an integrating of new developing technologies with currently available microsocopy systems.
The 2019 AGM of the RMS Engineering & Physical Sciences Committee of the Royal Microscopical Society took place on Tuesday 2 July during mmc2019.
Download the 2019 Engineering and Physical Sciences Section AGM Minutes