Management Team

The NAME research team draws together leaders in their fields who collectively have delivered research programmes in excess of £185M, published >1800 papers, including 57 Nature/Science Group publications. Their record of pioneering research has been recognised by the awarding of 28 medals/prizes by professional bodies including the IOM3, Institute of Physics, Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society.


Photo of Richard Curry

Prof. Richard Curry

University of Manchester

Richard is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) at the University of Manchester; Associate Dean (Institutes); and Director of Science for Royce at Manchester. He is the pioneer (principal investigator) of the P-NAME tool and its prototype (SIMPLE). His research includes studies of nanocrystalline and quantum dot (QD) systems including the first near-IR QD LED and first PbS QD photovoltaic device, ultrahigh performance QD detectors, and the first nitride QD LED. He is also a leading expert in the doping of amorphous chalcogenide systems, providing a break-through in n-type doping. He has extensive experience of managing multi-partner (UK and international) research programmes, strategic management of resources (budgets >£25M), and shaping research strategy and policy.

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Prof. Neil Alford, MBE

Imperial College London

Neil is Associate Provost at Imperial College London, Professor in the Department of Materials, and co-lead of the Atom to Devices theme at the Henry Royce Institute. He has made significant contributions across materials science and engineering, including ceramic perovskites for high-temperature superconductors, and microwave dielectric materials and devices. In 2008 he was awarded the IOM3 Griffith Prize and Medal, and in 2018, the Platinum Prize. In 2013 he was awarded an MBE for services to engineering. His recent work includes the development of high-Q dielectric materials, room temperature MASER operation and recently CW MASER operation using NV—diamond. He has an outstanding track record of working in and with industry, including the translation and exploitation of research from academia.

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Dr Jessica Boland

University of Manchester

Jessica is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Lecturer in Functional Materials and Devices in EEE at University of Manchester. An expert in THz material characterisation, rapidly gaining an international reputation as a leader in her field, her work includes the development of optical-pump THz-probe spectroscopy characterisation techniques and pioneering work on THz devices. Recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, she contributed to the first MIR nanotomography study of topological insulator (TI) Bi2Se3 films and is now developing THz-SNOM to explore this exciting topological physics. She received the Institute of Physics Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize (2017), the British Science Association Isambard Kingdom Brunel Award (2019), and Philip Leverhulme Prize (2019). 

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Dr Iain Crowe

University of Manchester

Iain is Senior Lecturer in Microelectronics and Nanoscience in Electronic & Electrical Engineering at University of Manchester. His research centres on the development of Si-photonic technologies and improved photovoltaic devices. Recent work includes a breakthrough in the understanding of Si solar cell degradation through identification of a boron-oxygen complex, which was the most viewed article at the Journal of Applied Physics in 2019. He has significant experience of working in the aerospace and defence sectors, and is a key collaborator of the UK EPSRC Si-Photonics Cornerstone project acting as the UK user representative at the recent renewal interview.

Dr Joshua Freeman

University of Leeds

Joshua is a University Academic Fellow in Electronic & Electrical Engeering at the University of Leeds, and former holder of an Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship (Paris, France). He is an expert in precision THz spectroscopy of quantum materials, coherent measurements and control of terahertz opto-electronic devices.

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Dr Chris Gourlay

Imperial College London

Chris is a Reader in Metallurgy at Imperial College London, specialising in alloy solidification and alloy design. He is Principle Investigator on greater than £2M worth of grants in the past 5 years across EPSRC , the Royal Society and industry including, Nihon Superior, AWE plc and Toshiba. He also leads the Imperial spoke of the EPSRC future Liquid Metal Engineering (LiME) hub. His research on electronic solders has resulted in international patents and he has been awarded several IOM3 prizes for his work, including Frank-Fitz-gerald medal in 2009, Silver medal in 2010, and Rosenhain medal in 2019. 

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Prof. Sarah Haigh

University of Manchester

Sarah is Director of the Electron Microscopy Centre, and Professor of Materials Characterisation at the University of Manchester. Her research focus is on advanced Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) techniques to understand nanomaterials performance, and she holds an ERC Starting Grant to develop in-situ TEM instrumentation. She has received the IOM3 Silver Medal (2012) and Rosenhain Medal (2017), and the RMS Medal for Innovation in Applied Microscopy (2016).

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Prof. Bryan Hickey

University of Leeds

Bryan is Professor of Physics, Head of the Condensed Matter Group and former Head of School at the University of Leeds. He co-ordinated the EC FP6 RTN Ultrasmooth, the FP7 ITN Spinicur, and the EPSRC network on spintronics Spin@RT24. He is an expert in electron transport, thin film materials growth and leads the development of nanoscale films with a focus on developing new materials and structures to harness spin-orbit interactions. He was recently a member of the Royal Society University Fellowships Panel. 

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Prof. Edmund Linfield

University of Leeds

Edmund is Chair of Terahertz (THz) Electronics in the School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds; Director of the University’s Bragg Centre for Materials Research; and, the University’s academic Champion
for the Royce, leading the Atoms to Devices theme. He is internationally renowned for his research on terahertz science and technology and led the demonstration of the first THz frequency quantum cascade laser. He was awarded an ERC Advanced grant ‘Tosca’ (€2.5M, 2010-2015) and jointly won the Institute of Physics Faraday Medal in 2014 for his ‘outstanding and sustained contributions to the physics and technology of the far-infrared (terahertz) frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum’. He has extensive experience in the growth, fabrication and low temperature electrical measurements of low-dimensional electronic, and optoelectronic, devices. He collaborates internationally, including in the US (Harvard), Japan (Okinawa IST), China (Shanghai IMIT), Singapore (Nanyang TU), Australia (Queensland) and within the EU.

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Dr Satoshi Sasaki

University of Leeds

Satoshi is a Lecturer in the condensed matter group at the University of Leeds, an expert in TI and super-conductor materials and device development. He developed novel Bi2Te2Se TI compounds approaching insulating behaviour for the first time, superconducting copper (Cu)-intercalated Bi2Se3 (CuxBi2Se3) with all theoretically-proposed ingredients for topological superconductors (TSCs), and superconducting Sn1-xInxTe, and fabricated nanostructure devices.


The NAME Team are always on the look out for the best talent.

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