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I got my PhD in this very Physics department, in the early days of pulsed lasers and developing the internet. After a spell travelling, and working for the BBC, I got a lectureship here at Imperial in 1985. Apart from the odd year in California, I\u2019ve been here ever since, becoming a professor in 2000.<\/p>\n
Much of my research has been with nanostructured semiconductors but along the way I learnt\u00a0new ways of making and using mid-infrared light, and lately I\u2019ve been exploiting this knowledge for medical applications. Clinical trials with our \u201cDigistain\u201d, mid-IR cancer biopsy imaging instrument have proved it to be very effective in diagnosing Breast Cancer early on and with increased confidence. It is well on the way to commercial exploitation.<\/p>\n
Working at the physics\/life science interface also helped me realise how we could adapt some of the nano-imaging methods developed by solid state physicists to make a new microscope that can look inside cells. Now we can see the tiny organelles inside a cell optically for the first time. The spatial resolution, ~8nm, beats the Abbe resolution limit by 1200x and we think it has the potential to augment, or even replace, electron microscopy right across the biosciences.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always loved science, and refused to believe that it should be the preserve of \u201civory-tower\u201d types. All through my career I\u2019ve made time for appearances at schools and science shows all over the world. My demo-laden and occasionally hazardous lecturing style has drawn many a comment, and even the odd award! I\u2019ve also made numerous TV, radio and newspaper appearances, and once went live on BBC\u2019s newsnight to explain opto-electronics research to Jeremy Paxman\u2019s multi-million strong audience. It was terrifying, but definitely worth it.<\/p>\n
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I got my PhD in this very Physics department, in the early days of pulsed lasers and developing the internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n