Engineering, Physical & Material Sciences

Anna Baldycheva

Engineering, Physical & Material Sciences Section Chair, University of Exeter

Anna Baldycheva is an Assistant Professor in Engineering at the University of Exeter, where she leads STEMM Laboratory – a highly interdisciplinary academic research lab working on applied R&D of smart materials, devices and systems for real-world applications. STEMM Lab specifically conducts applied research in cooperation with industry and business.

Prof Baldycheva is a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Higher Education Academy. She served on the board of the EPMS section of the RMS since 2015, as a section committee member, then as a deputy chair and since 2023 as a chair of the section. Prior to her active involvement in the RMS activities, she was on board of the Microscopy Society of Ireland. At the RMS Prof Baldycheva is also actively involved in outreach activities to support and promote women in microscopy and related disciplines, as well as running and organising events for children. 
 
With over 15 years of combined experience in pioneering R&D within prestigious academic institutions such as MIT, Trinity College Dublin, Tyndall Institute and the University of Exeter, Professor Baldycheva is an internationally recognised female researcher, expert in emerging technologies, innovator and entrepreneur in STEMM, who is the founder and the main driver behind the Women in STEMM Initiative - It’s Her! https://itsher.today/ featured in Forbes and other media.  Since 2019 she serves on the committee of the Jocelyn Bell Burnell PhD Scholarship to support physicists from under-represented groups. 
 
She is also a founder and trustee of STEMM Global Scientific Society - the first international academic network helping scientists and innovators to connect and establish collaborations on emerging technologies projects across STEMM disciplines.
 
Since 2015 Prof Baldycheva has been an expert in Future and Emerging Technologies at the European Commission. She has published over 100 scientific publications to date with over 1000 citations.  She is an editor of the Nature Scientific Reports and Discover Nano Journals and a guest editor in a number of recognised scientific journals.

Roland Kröger

Engineering, Physical & Material Sciences Section Vice Chair, University of York

Roland is a Professor at the Department of Physics at the University of York concentrating on Nano- and Biomaterials using electron microscopy as well as various spectroscopy tools including Raman microscopy and X-ray techniques. He obtained his PhD from the University of Hamburg/Germany and the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Science and Technology in Braunschweig/Germany. Roland 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 using focused ion beam as a key method for sample preparation and analysis. Besides his interest in multi-lengthscale material characterization in 3D he is particularly focussing on in situ techniques to study mineralisation processes in liquid environments. 

Julia Parker

Engineering, Physical & Material Sciences Section Deputy Chair, Diamond Light Source

Julia is an X-ray microscopist at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility. Julia is responsible for the operation of the hard X-ray nanoprobe beamline, supporting nanoscale spectroscopy, diffraction and imaging experiments across the life and physical sciences. Julia joined Diamond in 2007 after completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Julia’s current research interests lie in the area of biomineralisation, using synchrotron techniques to unveil details of the structure of calcium carbonates formed by organisms such as shells and studying the crystallisation and formation pathways of calcium carbonates.

Trevor Almeida

infocus representative, University of Glasgow

Trevor is a Lecturer in the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics Group at the University of Glasgow. He obtained his PhD in Material Science at the University of Nottingham, focusing on the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of magnetic nanoparticles. His research evolved to investigate a range of nanomagnetic processes by combining in-situ TEM methods with Lorentz microscopy techniques. This took place during time spent at Imperial College London, Centre for Electron Nanoscopy (Denmark), Ernst-Ruska Centre (Germany), the University of Glasgow and CEA-LETI in Grenoble (France). Trevor’s primary interests include the functional magnetism within 3D nanostructures, nanoelectronics, magnetotactic bacteria, meteorites, minerals, nanoparticles and thin films.

Sergio Bertazzo

University College London

I am a chemist by training and, since I started my first degree, I have been interested in research on the formation, behaviour and nature of minerals in different biological contexts. It is surprising to me how deeply biominerals in general are involved in biological and medical systems, from the cellular level to whole organism. These biominerals are not only part of the normal metabolism and tissues, but are also key players in diseases. 

An understanding of how minerals are formed in tissues and of how they interact with biomolecules, cells, and tissues can assist in the development of pharmacological interventions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the wide range of diseases where minerals are present and active, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiac diseases. It can also provide the basis for the design of unique bioinspired and biomimetic materials.

Employing an interdisciplinary strategy, my Mineralomics laboratory introduced a novel research approach, starting with the design and implementation of new methods for the full characterisation of biominerals present in healthy or diseased calcified tissues. The knowledge generated by this biomineral characterization research allows my group to better understand the role of these biominerals in biological systems, and use this information to design new intervention methods to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases, as well as create new materials.          In my research, I generally characterize the physico-chemical properties of the biomineral present in a healthy or diseased tissue. I have been developing methods to extract the mineral from an organic system without modifying its original characteristics, which I follow up with advanced electron microscopy, focused ion beam, diffraction and spectroscopic imaging methods, and thermogravimetric analysis. I have already created several sample preparations and imaging methods, such as Correlative-Light Ion Microscopy (CLIM), and Density-Dependent Scanning Electron Microscopy (DDC-SEM), and I am currently developing new methods, such as In-Silico Microscopy. In this way, I am able to obtain the morphology, composition and crystallinity of these biominerals from the nano to the macro scale. 

Matthew Bilton

University of Liverpool

Matt is a Senior Electron Microscopy Specialist at the University of Liverpool. He obtained a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Leeds, specialising in applying controlled electron fluence TEM for the study of beam sensitive bio-nanomaterials and sorbent nanomaterials for carbon capture. 
As a Post-Doctoral researcher at the University of York he focussed on the analysis of bone ultrastructure using high-resolution 3D-volume STEM tomography, and analysis of carbonate crystal growth using liquid in situ STEM. Matt later worked at Simon Fraser University (Canada), providing collaborative research in the high-resolution electron microscopy of nanoscale materials with tuned surface and interfacial chemistries, and supporting the multi-user electron microscopy facility at 4D Labs.
Matt has been at the University of Liverpool since 2017 and supports research and teaching across the broad fields of physical science on behalf of the Scanning Electron Microscopy Shared Research Facility (SEM-SRF). His most recent interests include the application of EBSD and TKD for the study of geological materials, and materials for clean energy production.

Xiaohui (Helen) Chen

University of Manchester

Helen is a Senior Lecturer at the Division of Dentistry; School of Medical Sciences at the University of Manchester focuses on Dental Biomaterials Research and Innovation to improve Oral Health. She obtained her BEng (Hons) in Metallurgy at Northeastern University in China, a MEng (Hons) in Materials Science and a PhD in Dental Materials at Queen Mary University of London. Helen leads wide-ranging research activities in Biomaterials for Dentistry including investigating structure and mechanical properties of enamel and dentine, dental erosion, bioactive glasses for oral health, dental resin composites design and optimisation, glass-ceramics synthesis and characterisation, 3D printing replica teeth and implant surface modifications. Helen and team use microscopy, spectroscopy, diffraction, xCT, as well as synchrotron techniques for multi-length scale material characterisation and the investigation of in situ mineralisation processes in liquid environments. Helen's research has not only led to journal publications but also patents and products.

Sean Collins

University of Leeds 

Sean Collins is a University Academic Fellow in the Bragg Centre for Materials Research, the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, and the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds. Sean leads a group specialising in electron microscopy for analytical microscopy and microstructure characterisation in molecular and low-density materials from organic semiconductors to zeolites. Sean’s research interests span imaging, diffraction, and electron beam spectroscopy in two and three dimensions. Originally from the United States, Sean moved to the UK in 2012 to pursue a PhD in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. During his PhD, Sean developed electron energy loss spectroscopy for quantitative, three-dimensional imaging of surface plasmons in metal nanoparticles. Sean is a member of the SuperSTEM Advisory Committee and also a user at the electron Physical Sciences Imaging Centre at the Diamond Light Source. An LGBT+ microscopist, Sean is interested in working toward greater inclusion and equity in science and engineering. 

Dan Haspel

Oxford Instruments

Dan currently works for Oxford Instruments as a Product Scientist, specialising in EBSD and FIB applications. Dan graduated with his PhD in 2018 from Loughborough University which looked at developing a dual-layer system for the mitigation of tin whisker growth. Prior to this, Dan obtained his MEng, also from Loughborough University, in Automotive Materials Engineering. Prior to working at Oxford Instruments, Dan worked at the Plymouth Electron Microscopy centre as the lab’s specialist for Materials and Engineering and was primarily in charge of the FIB-SEM, creating and analysing 3D datasets. Dan is also highly interested in finding novel samples to use advance analytical techniques with, such as EBSD, TKD (transmission-EBSD) and 3D analytics. Dan, along with other Plymouth EM colleagues, have been successfully using 3D printing to create bespoke sample holders for use in electron microscopes.

Leonardo Lari

University of York

Leonardo Lari is a Research Officer at the York-JEOL Nanocentre and the Physics Engineering and Technology School at the University of York. Leonardo obtained his first degree in Physics from the University of Florence. He then moved to the University of Liverpool in 2005 where he started his PhD studies as a Marie Curie-Skłodowska EU RTN fellow. After obtaining his PhD, he moved to the University of Sheffield for a Post-Doc before joining the University of York as a staff scientist dedicated to the York double aberration corrected in-situ open cell environmental microscopy facility. Leonardo is interested in developing In-situ techniques, correlating materials structure and their properties, in phase transformations of nanomaterials and catalysts redox reactions down to the atomic scale.  Since 2008, Leonardo has authored around 60 peer-reviewed publications.  

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.

Fabio Nudelman

University of Edinburgh

Fabio is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh. Fabio obtained his PhD at the Weizmann institute of Science, Israel, and then moved to the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands as a postdoc before joining the University of Edinburgh as a Chancellor’s Fellow. Fabio’s current research is in biomineralisation, investigating the formation and the structure of mineralized biological materials such as bone, teeth and shells. This is an exciting area at the interface between materials sciences, chemistry, crystal growth and biology. Cryo-electron microscopy techniques, including cryoTEM, cryoSEM and cryoFIB-SEM play a central role in Fabio’s research, and in the last years he has also been interested in soft matter, electron crystallography and Ptychographic X-ray tomography as a 3D imaging technique.

Manfred Schuster

Johnson Matthey

Manfred is Principal Scientist at Johnson Matthey focusing on studying materials relevant for catalysis and energy research. He is responsible for the JMs aberration corrected TEM at Diamond Light Source where he leads JMs research on the in-situ characterisation of heterogeneous catalysts under ambient conditions by means of electron microscopy. Furthermore, he is pursuing multilength scale research combining synchrotron and TEM techniques.

He obtained his PhD in physics in 2010 from the Technical University Berlin and the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck Society with a thesis on combining aberration corrected TEM and synchrotron techniques to study of the structure and reactivity of Euro IV/VI soot particles. Before joining JM in 2014, he worked as a project leader at the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck Society in Berlin where his research was focused on electron microscopical characterization of battery materials as well as heterogeneous catalysts.

Jane Woolrich

Rolls Royce

Jane is Materials Engineer and a senior member of the Service Investigation team for Civil Aerospace at Rolls-Royce plc. Her prime role involves the use of both optical and electron microscopy techniques for fractographic analysis, using both established techniques and applying new modalities to further a deeper level of understanding.  She is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.  Having previously obtained a Masters in Gas Turbine Materials from Swansea University she is currently studying part-time for a PhD in single crystal materials at Cambridge University.

Xiangli Zhong FRMS, MIMMM

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. Xiangli has extensive experience and rich knowledge on electron microscopies, ion microscopies and sample preparation techniques. Her current research interest is on minimising focused ion beam (FIB) induced damages and FIB technical development on various types of materials.