Personal Chair, Head of School
- About
-
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Natural and Computing Sciences
Biography
I joined the University of Aberdeen in September 2022 as the Head of School of Natural and Computing Sciences. I am a physicist by training having studied Laser Physics and Optoelectronics at St. Andrews, followed by a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics, also at St. Andrews. I then briefly left academia to join the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (dstl) working on optical imaging technologies.
I returned to St. Andrews in 2002 as a postdoctoral research fellow working on cold atom physics before being awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2003 to work on holographic optical trapping and beam shaping.
In 2007 I joined the University of Dundee as a Lecturer, and held a variety of roles, including Head of Physics and Associate Dean Research in the School of Science and Engineering.
In 2018 I moved to Australia to take up a Chair and act as the Director, Research Programs in the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney.
My research work focusses on applications of optics in areas such as optical trapping and microscopy. I am interested in making use of these tools in the biomedical science and in environmental sciences (especially in aerosol analysis). I dabble in areas such as THz beam shaping and microfluidics.
I have taught a range of courses throughout my career from first year to research postgraduate. I have been fortunate to teach across disciplinary boundaries, teaching to students taking degrees in topics such as product design to quantum computing.
Qualifications
- MSci (Hons) Laser Physics and Optoelectronics1997 - University of St. Andrews
- PhD Physics2001 - University of St. Andrews
External Memberships
- Member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP)
- Senior Member of the Optica
- Chartered Physicist (CPhys)
- Research
-
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Physics.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Photonics and Optical Physics
- Physics
- Physical Chemistry
- Biophysical Science
- Applied Physics
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
- Teaching
-
Teaching Responsibilities
Currently my teaching consists of honours project supervision on the physics program, but am open to supervising projects from students in any subject area interested in experimental or computational optics and photonics, including biophotonics.
In 2023 I will be starting a new Optics 3rd year course, aimed at students studying physics.
- Publications
-
Page 2 of 7 Results 26 to 50 of 159
Raman spectroscopy for accurately characterizing biomolecular changes in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells
Journal of Biophotonics, vol. 11, no. 3, e201700166Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMicroscale characterization of prostate biopsies tissues using optical coherence elastography and second harmonic generation imaging
Laboratory Investigation, vol. 98, no. 3, pp. 380-390Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/labinvest.2017.132
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Quantitative assessment of the mechanical properties of prostate tissue with optical coherence elastography
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2288485
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Optical redox ratio and endogenous porphyrins in the detection of urinary bladder cancer: A patient biopsy analysis
Journal of Biophotonics, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 1062-1073Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.201600162
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Microfluidics-based, time-resolved mechanical phenotyping of cells using high-speed imaging
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2284553
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of cancer heterogeneity in ultrasound guided biopsies of prostate in men suspected with prostate cancer
Journal of Biophotonics, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 911-918Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.201600090
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Droplet lasers: a review of current progress
Reports on Progress in Physics, vol. 80, no. 5, 054402Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/aa6172
High-throughput, imaging based mechanical phenotyping of prostate cancer cells
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/CLEOE-EQEC.2017.8087785
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Transport of intensity microscopy for distinguishing single and bundled microtubules
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Improved antireflection coated microspheres for biological applications of optical tweezers
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2239025
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Colloidal interactions with optical fields: Optical tweezers
Fluids, Colloids and Soft Materials: An Introduction to Soft Matter Physics. Fernandez-Nieves, A., Puertas, A. M. (eds.). Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 111-130, 20 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119220510.ch7
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Changes in autofluorescence based organoid model of muscle invasive urinary bladder cancer
Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 1193-1200Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.7.001193
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Biophotonics: Cellular lasers
Nature Photonics, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 559-560Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.158
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Bubble wrap for optical trapping and cell culturing
Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 3757-3764Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.6.003757
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Droplet lasers
Optics and Photonics News, vol. 26, pp. 36-43Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OPN.26.5.000036
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Hydrodynamic stretching for prostate cancer detection
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2179201
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Low-cost optical manipulation using hanging droplets of PDMS
RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 68, pp. 55561-55565Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ra11431d
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Characterizing conical refraction optical tweezers
Optics Letters, vol. 39, no. 23, pp. 6691-6694Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.39.006691
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Characterising Conical Refraction Optical Tweezers
Working Papers: Preprint PapersIn vitro and in vivo biolasing of fluorescent proteins suspended in liquid microdroplet cavities
Lab on a Chip, vol. 14, no. 16, pp. 3093-3100Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c4lc00485j
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Applied physics: Optical trapping for space mirrors
Contributions to Journals: Short Survey- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/506437a
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Biological lasing in liquid microdroplets deposited on a superhydrophobic surface
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/cleo_at.2014.jth2a.33
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Droplet resonator based optofluidic microlasers
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2041447
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Studying biofuel aerosol evaporation rates with single particle manipulation
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2061378
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Aerosol droplet optical trap loading using surface acoustic wave nebulization
Optics Express, vol. 21, no. 25, pp. 30148-30155Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.21.030148
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus