Professor Bill Barnes
Key people in functional materials research
Functional materials are fundamental to manufacture. This theme forms part of the overall Great Western Research ‘materials’ research topic, led by the University of Exeter. The value of functional materials lies in their enabling capabilities – their economic impact comes from the effects of the devices, products and systems that result from them. We have a significant level of expertise and activity in functional materials across several academic Schools and Colleges, the lead disciplines being Engineering and Physics.
Professor David Wright
Professor of Engineering, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Theme Leader for Functional Materials research
Research expertise in experimental and theoretical characterisation of the recording and readout processes in optical, magnetic, solid-state and probe-based memory systems and devices. Professor Wright leads the UK Government (DTI) funded UK Data Storage Network, the EUs Special Strategic Action on Memory Technology and ProTeM - the EUs only Integrated Project mass data storage technology.
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Professor Bill Barnes
Professor of Photonics, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, in the Electromagnetic and Acoustic Materials research group. Scientific advisor to the European Commission funded Network of Excellence on the topic of molecular scale photonics.
Research expertise in the interaction between light and matter. Professor Barnes leads a group that is pioneering research in plasmonics, an emerging area of nanophotonics where the nanostructured materials include metals.
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Professor Stephen Eichhorn
Chair in Functional Materials, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences and leader of the Cellulose and Natural Materials group.
Interested in applying principles from biological structures in engineering applications - or biometrics - for a variety of applications including composites, smart packaging, energy harvesting and biofunctional materials.
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Professor Ken Evans
Professor of Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Leader of the Materials and Manufacturing Engineering research group.
Research interests in theoretical and experimental investigation of novel materials; their processing, fabrication, structure and properties; their composities and, most recently, biomaterials; the study and development of auxetic materials, which expand laterally when stretched.
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Professor Rob Hicken
Professor of Condensed Matter Physics, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences.
Research expertise in magnetic materials and photonics, with a longstanding interest in magnetic processes that occur on sub-nanosecond timescales.
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Professor Roy Sambles
Professor of Experimental Physics and leader of the Electromagnetic and Acoustic Materials research group in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Fellow of the Royal Society. A Council Member of the EPSRC
Professor Sambles is a leader in the fields of liquid crystal optics, wavelength-scale structures, surface plasmons, metal film physics, microwave photonics and photonics in nature with over 390 refereed papers.
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Professor Chris Smith
Associate Professor in Functional Materials, and Director of Research for Engineering
Research interests in 'smart' materials (added functionality) via understanding and engineering of their structure and physical properties. Research focused on negative Poisson's ratio, zero or negative thermal expansivity, and disorder, but of late also examining negative stiffness and mass, and vibration damping. Interest also in relating internal structure to unusual physical phenomena, in both synthetic and biological materials.
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Professor Yanqiu Zhu
Chair in Functional Materials, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, in the Electromagnetic Materials research group and leader of the Functional Materials lab.
Main area of expertise is experimental synthesis, characterisation of advanced nanomaterials with interesting functionalities, covering fundamental nanomaterials science and applied nanocomposites development. He is an author/co-author of about 100 scientific journal papers, with accumulated citations in excess of 2000 and h-index of 28.
