Profile

I got a degree in Chemistry from Manchester University longer ago than I want to remember then after an MSc at UMIST did my PhD at Liverpool University studying Surface Science and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. When I’m not working I play guitar and played in a band when I was a student. During my PhD my bandmates gave me a choice the band or PhD – I chose my PhD. Have you heard of a band called Rich in Spirit? – No? so I made the right choice. I support Man City and go as often as I can with my two sons

My research involves the study of surfaces at an atomic scale. People tend not to think about surfaces but they are everywhere and in just about every application of a solid material it’s the surface – or an interface between two surfaces – where all the exciting stuff goes on. Think about a hip implant, the inside of the material gives it strength but if the surface gives off harmful chemicals or particles, or prevents healing it’s never going to work. I tend to work at the interface too. That is the interface between Chemistry, Physics and Biomedicine. With dentists we are trying to work out what makes one dental implant better than another – they are both made from titanium so why don’t they heal the same way.  With Pharmacists we have been attaching special molecules to the surfaces of tiny particles that can be injected into a patient.  The idea is that these particles stick to cancer cells and show up clearly in an X-ray. We’re also doing a lot of work in trying to capture the sun’s energy to create fuels or electricity. Again by using the right molecules we are trying to copy the way nature uses light in photosynthesis to make sugar, but instead we want to make hydrogen or other fuels. Here’s a video my PhD student made on night shift at the synchrotron last night (28June2012) Brian Cox watch out! http://youtu.be/kPYqGxayr98

I work in two labs in my building in the Photon Science Institute.  One is a photoelectron spectroscopy lab where we have machines that produce X-rays, the X-rays hit our samples and electrons are kicked out of the surface. This is called the photoelectric effect and it’s what Einstein won a Nobel prize for – NOT relativity! By measuring the energy of the electrons we can tell what elements are on the surface and lots of things about these elements.

All of these experiments are carried out in ultra-high vacuum (at a pressure 0.00000000000001 times that of atmospheric pressure – lower than in space). Only the sample is inside the vacuum – we wouldn’t survive very long in there! A lot of the time we are trying to find leaks on the kit and you can imagine what happens if something goes wrong – it takes up to 3 days to get from that low pressure back to atmosphere and back to low pressure again.
We also use ultrafast lasers in the other lab. each pulse is 40 femtoseconds long- that is zero point, fourteen zeroes, 4 (0.00000000000004) seconds! Here we can work either in ultra high vacuum or in normal atmospheres.

The only thing regular about my days is the train journey to and from Manchester and the walk from the station to my office so it’s hard to pick a typical day.

Usually I’ll try to grab a coffee when I get into my office though there may already be a PhD student waiting for me wanting to discuss their results from the day before. When I travel to synchrotrons we can change the energy of the X-rays which gives us even more information but the day becomes less typical as I usually volunteer to work the night shift (I think it’s a hangover from my band days!). When everything is working well in the lab I’ll work on analysing our results – making them look pretty and clear by putting them onto graphs or making pictures to help explain what’s happening and writing the results and what we found into papers which (hopefully) get published in scientific journals. I’m also responsible for advising everyone in the Photon Science Institute to work safely with chemicals so this takes up some time. Usually at lunchtime I can find five minutes to check my Facebook status and maybe read some news on the bbc website. At home I’ll sit and chat with my kids, maybe play a bit of Call of Duty with them and get owned by them as I’m pretty rubbish! I also like cycling/mountain biking with the kids.