Pioneer 1

PIONEER01

Autumn 2008

www.epsrc.ac.uk

Can Richard Noble’steam build the fastestcar in the world?

9/11SURVIVORS’ STORIES / SLASHING ENERGY DEMAND / PROTECTING BRITAIN’S HERITAGE

SpeedFreak

The Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council (EPSRC) is the mainUK government agency for fundingresearch and training in engineering and the physical sciences – frommathematics to materials science and from information technology tostructural engineering.

Working with UK universities, it investsaround £740m a year in world classresearch and training to promote futureeconomic development and improvedquality of life.

PIONEER is EPSRC’s quarterlymagazine.

It highlights how EPSRC-fundedresearch and training is helping totackle global challenges and the majorissues facing individuals, businessand the UK economy.

Get involved:EPSRC’s portfolio of research projectsincludes more than 2,000 partnershipswith organisations from the industrial,business and charitable sectors.

More than 35 per cent of our researchfunding includes collaborative partners.

EPSRC’s knowledge transfer goalsinclude:• Enhancing opportunities for

business/university research collaborations to accelerate knowledge transfer.

• Ensuring postgraduate skills meet the needs of business through increased demand-led and collaborative training.

• Strengthening partnerships with business to improve knowledge transfer – including the development of strategic partnerships with research-intensive companies.

You can find out more about EPSRC and how you can work with us by visiting our website www.epsrc.ac.uk

The views and statements expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of EPSRC unless explicitly stated. Some of the research highlighted may not yet have been peer-reviewed.

© Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Reproduction permitted only if source is acknowledged.

ISSN 1758-7727

Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council

EPSRC: funding the future

Contact us:We have dedicated sector teams working tounderstand the research and skills needs oftheir sectors and to help connect businesseswith university expertise.

Aerospace and DefenceContact: Simon Crook, Tel: 01793 444425

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PIONEEREditor: Christopher BurattaE-mail: [email protected]: 01793 444305Mailing changes: [email protected]

ContributorsMaria Burke, Nina Morgan, Tony Newton.

“The evacuation of the WorldTrade Center complex after the 9/11 attacks was one ofthe largest full-scale evacuations of people in modern times”

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PIONEER 01Autumn 2008CONTENTS

29

13

25

FEATURES

13 Cover storyThe science behind the world’s fastest car

19 Default riskHelping banks avoid the mistakes of the credit crunch

21 Talking bacteriaDavid Spring on bacteria’s infectious conversation– and how we can change the message

25 The future’s brightCan affordable LEDs light the low energypathway?

29 Science and heritageNew work to preserve the past

31 Survivors’ storiesHow those who evacuated the World TradeCenter on 9/11 are helping to create a safer high-rise future

33 Drug discoveryNew training to keep the UK on top of the world

REGULARS

4 Leaders

5 BriefingsSelf-heal aeroplanes, robots with feelings andbullet-tagging technology

11 InterviewEPSRC’s business innovation director CatherineCoates on building stronger links with industry

34 Profile2008 Marconi award-winner David Payne onfuture communication, Harley Davidsons andHeston Blumenthal

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

Welcome to the first edition ofPIONEER – EPSRC’s newquarterly magazine. Its aim is to showcase the world-classresearch and brilliant minds

that we fund – the pioneers who are pushingback the boundaries of physical sciences andengineering and ensuring the UK can tackle thechallenges of the 21st century.

The UK has a great science and engineeringtradition. It has produced countless pioneers whohave left their mark on history – Newton, Brunel,

Frances Crick and James Watson, and, of course,Richard Noble.

He has already led two successful attempts onthe world land speed record and his team holdsthe current record with Thrust SSC.

Now, working with researchers funded byEPSRC, his Bloodhound SSC team hope to push the boundaries further than ever before and create the world’s first 1,000mph car.

It is ambitious, but through excellent science and engineering and with drive anddetermination, they have every chance ofreaching their goal.

Ultimately, their achievement will not bemeasured in miles per hour, but in the advancedtechnologies that follow from their work and inthe future achievements of the children theyinspire to become engineers.

For the UK to continue and build upon itsgreat tradition we need to inspire the nextgeneration of pioneers and we need to supporttalented researchers throughout their careers. To do this great tradition justice we also need

to ensure their brilliance improves livesthroughout the UK and across the globe.

Over the coming years, we will bechallenging our research community to tackle the very real issues of energy supply and climatechange, to develop new ways of using digitaltechnologies and to improve healthcare.

And we will be working closely withorganisations and businesses across all industrialsectors to help ensure that UK science makes a difference.

David Delpy EPSRC chief executive

Planning to deliver

During the next three years I will beChairman of two organisations –EPSRC and the Olympic DeliveryAuthority (ODA). Between themthey will spend about £10bn of

public money. The public and politicians willquite rightly want to feel that money is beingefficiently and effectively spent.

Both the work of EPSRC and the Olympicand Paralympic Games have the capacity to

release talent, improve the competitiveness ofBritain and create a more sustainable future.

At EPSRC our three-year delivery planaddresses key global challenges, such as energy,and outlines our continued commitment to investin the next generation of world-class researchersand support more ambitious research.

However, the expectations are higher thanever and like the ODA we will need to maintaina sharp focus on the scope of activity we supportacross the many and varied disciplines.

The ODA is also working to a fixedcompletion date something to which the researchcommunity is normally less prone.

Our task at the ODA is a very physical one –to build the infrastructure and stadium to hostthe 2012 Games. We have a fixed time frame, anapproximate scope of works and an agreedbudget. All are constantly at risk, primarily fromscope changes and price fluctuations.

Management of these risks is continuous andcomes under scrutiny from many stakeholderorganisations. We also have toughenvironmental, sustainability and diversity targets which we must meet if the LondonGames are to be a real success in the long term.

Delivery requires the co-ordination ofthousands of companies across the UK as well as the organisation of 20,000 workers on the Olympic site and five deliveries of lorry loads of materials every minute. It is anopportunity for the UK engineering andconstruction industry to show the world just what it can achieve.

In the case of both organisations, focus, team work and a determination to be the bestwill ensure we succeed.

John Armitt EPSRC chairman

Inspiringscience

briefingsSELF HEALING AIRCRAFTBACTERIA FOR THE FUTUREDIGITAL BOOST FOR AFRICAN FARMERSRUBBER SEA SNAKESFUNDS FOR MEDICAL ENGINEERINGROBOT LOVEBULLET TAGGINGBIG CITY FOOTPRINT

05

‘New skin’ for self heal planes

Bac for the futureBACTERIA could be the fuel of the future – thanks to new research atSheffield University.

The breakthrough could have significantimplications for the environment and theproduction of sustainable fuels.

Like all living creatures, bacteria sustainthemselves through their metabolism, a hugesequence of chemical reactions that transformnutrients into energy and waste.

Using mathematical computer models, theSheffield team mapped the metabolism of a type of bacteria called Nostoc.

Nostoc fixes nitrogen and, in doing so,releases hydrogen that can then potentially beused as fuel. Fixing nitrogen is an energyintensive process and until now it was not entirelyclear exactly how the bacterium produces the

energy it needs inorder to perform.But the newcomputer systemhas been able tomap out theprocess.

Dr GuidoSanguinetti, fromthe university’sDepartment ofComputer Science,

who led the study, said: “The research uncovereda previously unknown link between the energymachinery of the Nostoc bacterium and its corenitrogen metabolism. Further investigation ofthis pathway might lead to understanding andimprovement of the hydrogen productionmechanism of these bacteria. It will certainly besome time before a pool of bacteria powers yourcar, but this research is yet another small steptowards sustainable fuels.”

He added: “The next step for us will befurther investigation into hydrogen production, as well as constructing more mathematicalmodels capable of integrating various sources of biological data.”

The Sheffield research, part-funded byEPSRC, is the result of an interdisciplinarycollaboration of computer scientists andchemical engineers in a new discipline calledsynthetic biology. A major goal of syntheticbiology is to understand which pathways ofthe bacterial metabolism are responsible forimportant functions, and then geneticallyengineer organisms that can perform the desired function more effectively. The research was published in the journal Bioinformatics.

AILING AIRCRAFT could heal themselves during flight thanks to a revolutionary new system.

The technology, that mimics the healing processes found in nature, has been developed byaerospace engineers at Bristol University, with funding from EPSRC, and could be available forcommercial use within four years. In addition to improving aviation safety, the technology couldalso lead to lighter aircraft, cutting both fuel costs and carbon emissions.

If a tiny hole or crack appears in the aircraft – due to fatigue or a stone strike – epoxy resin‘bleeds’ from embedded vessels near the crack to quickly seal it and restore integrity. The resin and hardener enable the composite material to recover up to 80-90 per cent of its original strength– comfortably allowing a plane to function at its normal operational load.

Dye in the resin would allow engineers to pinpoint damage repairduring subsequent ground inspections.

Dr Ian Bond, the man who led thethree-year project, said: “This approachcan deal with small-scale damage that’snot obvious to the naked eye but whichmight lead to serious failures in structuralintegrity if it escapes attention.

“It’s intended to complement rather than replace conventional inspection andmaintenance routines, which can readily pick up larger-scale damage, caused by a bird strike, for example.”

The technique can be appliedwherever fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are used. These lightweight, high-performance materials are proving increasingly popular not only in aircraft but also in car, windturbine and even spacecraft manufacture. The new self-repair system could therefore have animpact in all these fields.

“This project represents just the first step,” said Dr Bond. “We’re also developing systems where the healing agent isn’t contained in individual glass fibres but actually moves around as part of a fully integrated vascular network, just like the circulatory systems found in animals and plants. Such a system could have its healing agent refilled or replaced and could repeatedlyheal a structure throughout its lifetime. Furthermore, it offers potential for developing otherbiological-type functions in man-made structures, such as controlling temperature or distributingenergy sources.”

The Bristol University research team, in collaboration with researchers at Imperial College,London, have been awarded a further £600,000 from EPSRC to continue the development of these techniques.

This researchis yet anothersmall steptowardssustainablefuels.Dr Guido Sanguinetti


Digital boostfor AfricanfarmersA DEVICE to help some of the most impoverished farmers in Africa maximise crop yields is being tested at London’s Kew Gardens.

Developed by engineers at the University of Leeds, the sensor devicegathers data on air temperature, humidity, air pressure, light, soil moistureand temperature – information crucial to making key agricultural decisions about planting, fertilisation, irrigation, pest and disease controland harvesting.

The Leeds team has been working with two Kenyan villages to developthe technology as part of EPSRC’s Village E-Science for Life (VESEL)project, a collaboration of key research groups in the UK and Kenya.

The project aims to apply advanced digitaltechnology to improvequality of life, boththrough its use ineducation and to optimiseagricultural practices.

Professor JaafarElmirghani, from theSchool of Electronic andElectrical Engineering,said: “In some areas ofKenya, localisedvariations in growingconditions can causesevere fluctuations in crop yields. Our part of the VESEL project isabout providing the rightinformation at the righttime to farmers.

This means they can use available water more efficiently, minimisingwastage and helping to optimise their harvests to feed their families.”

The devices feed back information via a wireless network to a central hub, or server, which will be located at the village school, and it is then sent to agriculture experts who will provide advice to assist farmers’ decisions. The ongoing data gathered will also feed intoagricultural teaching at Kenyan schools, which forms a central part of the education system.

The tests at Kew are expected to be complete by Autumn 2008, after which time the devices are initially to be trialled in the two Kenyanvillages. “We hope that, during 2009 and beyond, the technology will berolled out to other communities,” said Professor Elmirghani.

Cheap powerfrom sea snakesTWO HUNDRED metre ‘rubber sea snakes’ could hold the key to affordable wave power.

Invented in the UK, the ‘Anaconda’ is an innovative wave energyconcept and its ultra-simple lightweight design means it would be cheap to manufacture and maintain.

This would allow it to produce clean electricity at a lower cost than other types of wave energy converter. The device is still at an early stage of development and its concept has only been proven at very smalllaboratory-scale. But plans for larger-scale testing, funded by EPSRC, are underway.

Named after the snake of the same name because of its long thin shape, the Anaconda is closed at both ends and filled completely withwater. It is designed to be anchored just below the sea’s surface, with one end facing the oncoming waves.

When a wave hits the anaconda it causes a ‘bulge wave’ to form inside the tube. This turns a turbine fitted at the far end of the device and thepower produced is fed to shore via a cable.

Engineers at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with theAnaconda’s inventors and its developer, Checkmate SeaEnergy, are nowembarking on a programme of larger-scale laboratory experiments.

Professor John Chaplin, who is leading the EPSRC-funded project said: “The Anaconda could make a valuable contribution to environmentalprotection by encouraging the use of wave power.

“A one-third scale model of the Anaconda could be built next year for sea testing and we could see the first full-size device deployed off theUK coast in around five years’ time.”

When built, each full-scale Anaconda device would be 200 metres long and seven metres in diameter, and deployed in water depths of between 40 and 100 metres. Initial assessments indicate that the Anaconda wouldhave a power output of 1MW (roughly the electricity consumption of2000 houses) and might be able to generate power at a cost of 6p per kWh or less.

Part of the project is aboutproviding the rightinformation atthe right time to farmers.Professor Jaafar Elmirghani

Snakes on a chain: computer simulation of anaconda device

briefings

07

CASH INJECTIONFOR MEDICALENGINEERINGEPSRC and the Wellcome Trust have launched a £45m initiative to boost medical engineering in the UK.

The initiative will provide increased funding for applied research inhealthcare. It will also improve the integration of expertise in the publicand private sectors to help ensure innovations are harnessed effectively bythe healthcare industry and aided through the process of regulation,commercialisation and distribution.

A number of multidisciplinary centres of excellence will be establishedwithin the UK, bringing together experts in the fields of the physical and

engineering sciences withthose in the clinical and lifesciences. Over the past 12months, both the WellcomeTrust and EPSRC haveannounced a number ofnew medical devicesdeveloped with theirfunding. These include the i-Snake for use inkeyhole surgery, funded bythe Wellcome Trust, andbiological cements to repair‘burst fractures’ of thespine, funded by EPSRC.Through this jointinitiative, the twoorganisations hope tostimulate further discoveryand boost the developmentof such innovations.

EPSRC chief executiveDavid Delpy said: “The

UK has significant strengths in the areas of engineering, physical, clinicaland life sciences. This partnership with the Wellcome Trust opens upexciting new possibilities in exploratory research in healthcare that willcross these disciplines. It offers tremendous potential for significantadvances to address currently unmet clinical needs.”

Dr Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, added: “Majoradvances in medical diagnosis and treatment, such as CT scanning,magnetic resonance scanning and fibre-optic surgical techniques havecome from interdisciplinary collaborations between engineering, physical and medical sciences.

“This scheme will provide major new funding for interdisciplinarycollaborations to develop new technologies that will advance healthcare in the future.”

• EPSRC recently formed a Strategic Alliance with GlaxoSmithKline to boost research in drug discovery and development.

Total investment will be £10m over the next five years and will bringtogether academic and industrial expertise and resources to fund projectsof mutual interest.

A LOVEABLE robot with a heart of its own is helping thepublic build a new relationship with robotics.

Heart Robot is a puppet with robotic features which appears to react in an emotional way with people.

It responds to loud noises and agitation by appearing to becomemore anxious as it tenses up and its heart beats faster, and relaxes and calms down as its environment becomes less worrying.

Project coordinator David McGoran, who combines experience as a street performer with an academic interest in robotics, said: “Wehave built Heart Robot to respond to the way it is treated by people.We are hoping that people will feel an emotion in response to the robot and that this will inspire them to find out more about robotics.

“It has large deep soulful eyes, delicate ears, hands and feet and is warm to touch. A soft flexible skin made of Egyptian cotton encasesthe frame. Heart Robot has autonomous reflexes and will appear tobreathe, blink, flinch and clench its hands in response to humanencounters.”

The project has brought together researchers from the BristolRobotics Laboratory at the University of the West of England (UWE),circus performers, artists, model makers, puppeteers and experts inanimatronics. Most of the work of designing and building Heart Robothas been done by UWE Robotics BSc degree students.

Dr Matthew Studley, project leader and a robotics expert fromUWE said: “To help us produce our Heart Robot we have joinedforces with world-leading puppeteer William Todd-Jones, Bristol’sCircomedia maestro Bim Mason, leading animatronics expert MattDenton (who built some of the animated creatures for the Harry Potter films) and Peter Walters who is an expert in the expressiveness of materials.”

The research is funded by EPSRC through a Partnership for Public Engagement award.

To find out more visit www.heartrobot.org.uk

Could you everlove a robot?

Thispartnershipopens upexciting newpossibilities inexploratoryresearch inhealthcareDavid Delpy, EPSRC chief executive

“...and what about my feelings?”


briefings

The evolving challenges of the 21st century are global – and tackling them is a global responsibility.

To meet these challenges, EPSRC is working to ensure the best UKresearch teams can collaborate with the best partners around the world.

EPSRC currently invests more than £400m in supporting research with international links including developing energy partnerships withChina, working on rural infrastructure in India and ground-breakingmaterials science with research teams in the USA.

This ability to learn, collaborate and lead on the global stage will ensure UK research remains world-leading and fulfils its responsibility in tackling the major challenges of our time.

EPSRCgoes global

USA

£112.3mMaterial worldResearchers from the UK and the US are collaborating on a range of issues –including work to answer fundamentalquestions about the electronic propertiesof materials.

Supported by a joint EPSRC andNational Science Foundation (USA)funding scheme, teams are discoveringand understanding new states of matterthat have the potential to be employed in tomorrow’s technologies such as‘spintronics’ applications.

Canada

£14.4m

South America

£3.3m

European Union

£201.1mA sum greater than its partsEPSRC is a partner in a number ofEuropean networks aimed atstrengthening research across the EU.

The networks allow teams to tacklechallenges collectively through thesharing of facilities, internationalexchanges and pan-European publicdialogue.

One EPSRC-led network, Complexity-NET, brings together 11 countries tostimulate complexity research andinnovation through a coordinatedapproach to funding and collaboration.

Connecting research on the world stage.

09

EPSRC InternationalResearch Funding

Total: £415.1m

Non-EU Europe

£16.8m

Rest of World

£11.1m

Australasia

£15.1m

India

£6.7mMaking the connectionThere are around 800 million people living in rural parts ofIndia who do not have access to clean water, sustainableelectricity or modern communication technologies.

To tackle these issues, EPSRC-supported researchcollaborations include a consortium of British and Indianuniversities, institutes and companies that plans toestablish the first India-UK Advanced Technology Centre of Excellence.

The centre will develop wireless internet access for ruralcommunities and wireless grid networks for remotemanagement of utilities, water quality detection and flood monitoring.

China

£8.8mPower to the peopleLeading UK energy research teams, supported by EPSRC, are working with Chinese counterparts to exchange ideas andstrengthen links between the UK and chinese energy industries.

UK and Chinese researchers are also sharing ideas andtechniques with engineering firm Arup who are planning a neweco-city near Shanghai. Research areas include spatial masterplanning, sustainable economic development and sustainableurban systems in energy, water and transport.

Japan

£24.9mShining lightsCollaborations include a ten-year linkbetween scientists from Southamptonand Kyoto Universities in the field ofoptoelectronics.

The work, supported by EPSRC, hasresulted in a number of discoveries inlaser direct writing in materials andcould have applications in ‘lab-on-a-chip’ technologies and in high-densityre-writable memory for opticalcomputing.

TALKINGCOMPUTERS

BULLET TAGGING technology developed in the UK couldhelp tackle gun crime.

The ‘nanotags’, made from pollen, would allow investigators to trace who has handled bullets used in a crime.

Invisible to the naked eye, the tiny tags could be coated onto guncartridges and would then attach themselves to the hands or gloves of anyone who handled them. Some of the ‘nanotag’ would alsoremain on the cartridge after it has been fired, making it possible toestablish a robust forensic link between cartridges fired during a crimeand whoever handled them. To date it has been extremely hard toestablish such a link because of the difficulty in retrieving fingerprints orsignificant amounts of DNA from the shiny, smooth cartridge surfaces.

The technology could be available for use within a year and couldalso be used to combat knife crime. The nanotags, which are quiteunlike anything previously used in the fight against gun crime, couldtherefore lead to a significant increase in successful convictions.

This breakthrough has been achieved by a team of chemists,engineers, management scientists, sociologists and nanotechnologistsfrom Brighton, Brunel, Cranfield, Surrey and York Universities, with EPSRC funding.

Project partners are the Forensic Science Service, BAE Systems and coatings manufacturer Andura. Professor Paul Sermon from the University of Surrey, who has led the research, said: “The tagsprimarily consist of naturally-occurring pollen, a substance that

evolution has provided withextraordinary adhesiveproperties.“It has been given a uniquechemical signature by coating itwith titanium oxide, zirconia,silica or a mixture of otheroxides. The precise compositionof this coating can be variedsubtly from one batch ofcartridges to another, enabling a firm connection to be made

between a particular fired cartridge and its user.” In addition to this breakthrough, the team has also developed a

method of trapping forensically-useful amounts of DNA on guncartridges. It involves increasing the abrasive character of the cartridgecase with micro-patterned pyramid textures, or adding an abrasive grit,held in place by a thin layer of resin, to the cartridge base.

Professor Sermon added: “We’re currently focusing onunderstanding the precise requirements of the police and cartridgemanufacturers.

“But our work clearly could make a valuable contribution not onlyto solving gun crime but also to deterring criminals from resorting tothe use of firearms in the first place.”

SCIENTISTS will use a powerfulsupercomputer to understand the braindamage caused by strokes.

The £940,000 study, dubbed Chatter Box, hopes to explore the effects by recreating the brain function that controls speech.

Psychologists at the University of Manchesterhave teamed up with colleagues in the School ofComputer Science to develop the speech andlanguage model using a computer system that will be up to 1,000 times more powerful than a standard PC.

Dr Stephen Welbourne, from the School of Psychological Sciences said: “Our goal is tounderstand how the brain supports languagefunction, how this breaks down after brain damageand the mechanisms that support recovery andrehabilitation.”

The Chatter Box study has been funded byEPSRC, the Medical Research Council and theBiotechnology and Biological Sciences ResearchCouncil.

AN AMBITIOUS £2.6m scheme aims to be the first to map – and cut – the carbonfootprint of an entire city.

The study of Leicester’s carbon footprint is being undertaken by De Montfort University,funded by EPSRC.

Researchers will investigate how much carbon the city produces – and look at ways it can be cut. They will calculate the emissions from traffic and energy use in the home and the effect of green spaces – known as ‘carbon sinks’ – on ‘soaking up’ CO2.

The 4M project – which stands for Measurement, Modelling, Mapping and Management – is believed to be the first of its kind and will be conducted by the University’s Institute ofEnergy and Sustainable Development (IESD).

The team will also investigate how controversial Individual Carbon Trading Schemes (ICTs) – where households are given an annual carbon allowance – would work.

IESD director, Professor Kevin Lomas said: “We are also looking at the Individual CarbonTrading allowances as it has been proposed as one of the ways forward in reducing emissions. We will be examining how it would impact on different lifestyles. For example, it might not make any difference to a well-off family. It might create difficulties for some sectors of society, for others it could be advantageous.”

The project also involves Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield Universities and Leicester City Council.


How big is a city’s carbon footprint?

briefings

The pollen ‘bullet tags’

Pollen ‘nanotags’ to combat gun crime

interview 11

The eureka moment, the culmination of a lifetime’s dedication, sacrificeand commitment, is only the start of the journey – the potential andpossibilities have to be harnessed.

The process of using a fundamentalbreakthrough to develop new technologies, drugs or materials includes ongoing testing and refinement through to industrial scale-up,viability and commercial development – eachstage harbours pitfalls and potential failure.

But at the end of that road lies the ultimateprize – the discovery that has realised itspotential, the drug that is saving lives, thetechnology that is cutting carbon emissions.

An important part of EPSRC’s objective is to ensure the world-class research it supportsmakes this transition as fast as possible. In April2008, EPSRC launched a new directorate –Business Innovation – to do just that.

“The main aim of the directorate is to focus on business-driven research and business-drivenpostgraduate training,” says Catherine Coates, who is heading up the new team.

“It builds on the past. EPSRC has alwaysfunded collaborative research. Some happensnaturally through the researchers themselvesmaking the link with companies. We have alsodeveloped a number of partnerships withcompanies and see partnership as a key strategyfor shortening the innovation chain.

“But the new focus leads us to think, where can we improve from here. How can we ensurethe business voice is heard in terms of whichresearch areas are most promising and what the long-term training needs are. We want tounderstand what business is looking for and towork smartly with other public sector partnerssuch as the Technology Strategy Board, sisterResearch Councils and Regional DevelopmentAgencies.”

Mrs Coates says the future will offerincreasing opportunities for companies tointeract, shape and benefit from UK researchexcellence. “We will look for new ways for smalland medium companies to access research, aswell as large companies,” she adds.

“The primary function of EPSRC is to fundexcellent research. What business can do is toshow us where the main challenges are and thedifficult problems facing business that needfundamental research.

“We can reflect those back to the researchcommunity and ask for innovative, challengingresearch projects in these areas.”

But Mrs Coates adds that EPSRC’s role is not to focus on short-term research for today’smarket but, working with industry, to identify the long-term underpinning issues that will affect entire sectors in the future. She adds: “Co-funding this long-term research allows thefinancial risk to be shared between the company,for which the research maybe too long-term forfull funding, and ourselves. This would be pre-competitive research, benefiting the whole sector,that we would expect to be published.” Two ofEPSRC’s most recent schemes with industrialinvolvement are new Doctoral Training Centresand the creation of Knowledge TransferAccounts.

EPSRC is in the process of establishing more than 40 new Doctoral Training Centres,including around 15 Industrial DoctorateCentres, with total funding of £250m.

“The concept of a doctoral training centre is to have a cohort of students working together on a large problem. That gives a better quality of training to the students, as they are aware ofa wider range of issues,” says Mrs Coates.

“With the industrial centres we take thatfurther. We would expect a group of companiesto associate around a theme at a university,

which they have helped to scope, and thestudents would spend most of their time working on their parts of the problem in those companies.”

Knowledge Transfer Accounts will award aminimum of £2m to successful universities toallow them to further exploit innovative ideasand develop knowledge transfer routes.

“A key objective of Business Innovation is to pull as much value as possible from our portfolioand to make it available to business. Universities are innovative in this respect. It is going to be achallenge but there is scope for this to be reallyexciting in giving universities more wherewithal to build their knowledge transfer expertise.”

Mrs Coates adds: “We want to keepbusinesses informed of the opportunitiesavailable and we want to speak to companies of all sizes, across all sectors about possible areas where we can work together.”

For more information or to discussinvolvement opportunities contact therelevant EPSRC sector team, contacts can be found on page 2, or visit theEPSRC website: www.epsrc.ac.uk

The main aim ofthe directorate is tofocus on business-driven research andpostgraduate training.Catherine Coates

Catherine Coates Business Innovation director

Harnessing the potentialof researchEPSRC’s innovation directorate aims to strengthen links between academic researchers and industry – and make the ‘innovation chain’ as strong and as short as possible.


By October 2011 Richard Noble and the Bloodhound team hope to have completed an epic and iconicjourney. And if all goes to plan they will have inspired a generation of British engineers capable oftackling the global challenges of the 21st century.

The plan is simple – design and build a car capable of 1,000mph then, at a remote desert location,make an assault on the World Land Speed Record.

The assault, in Richard Noble’s own words, will go something like this: “We will accelerate from zero to 300mphby mile four, so really gentle acceleration. Then we bring in the afterburner and the rocket, accelerate at over 3G,that’s acceleration at over 70mph per second, up through the measured mile at 1,000mph – taking about 3.6seconds. We then have aerodynamic drag that slows us down, parachutes and finally wheel brakes. We then turn it around, refuel it and send it back to get through the measured mile again before one hour is up.”

The four year Bloodhound project aims to push the World Land Speed Record past the 1,000mph barrier. It was born after the present Science Minister Lord Drayson, then at the Ministry of Defence, decided an iconicengineering feat was needed to inspire future generations. The man he turned to was Richard Noble, who led thecurrent World Land Speed Record holding team Thrust SSC – the first to break the sound barrier.

EPSRC, a founder sponsor of the project, is funding the vital aerodynamic research being carried out at Swansea University.

“Lord Drayson realised that in the last century, when Britain had immense engineering projects like Spitfire, the Vulcan Bomber and the Lightning fighter and, of course, Concorde, during this period there was no shortage of engineers, says Noble. “Why, because the kids at school were very fired up by these tremendous projects.

“Now, when we look forward, everything has to change, our houses have to change, transport has to change, our aircraft, cars and railways. We have to move into a low carbon world and it will need engineers to do it.

“Our objective is to create a national surge in the popularity of science and engineering. That is our primaryobjective. We will have failed if we get 1,000mph and don’t get the national surge in science and engineering.

“The second is to create an iconic project that requires excellent research and technology while providing themeans for students to join in the adventure. That’s what it is, an adventure. We don’t know where this thing’s goingto go. We have got a reasonable chance of getting there we think, but it’s 30 per cent faster than anything that’sbeen done before.”

A very BritishadventureCan the Bloodhound project break the landspeed record and inspire a new wave ofscientists and engineers?Words: Chris Buratta

speed freaks 13

Bloodhound project director Richard Noble


Noble knows from experience that the land speed record generates hugeglobal interest and intensely loyal followers.

He also knows the world speed record’s capability to inspire: “I was a kid of six-years-old, not really knowing where my life and future lay. My father was in the Army and we were stationed in Inverness. One day we went for a drive around the north shore of Loch Ness in the family carand we saw John Cobb’s jet boat Crusader. He was going for the WorldWater Speed Record. I saw this fantastic silver and red thing and I thought‘wow’, and that was it. Something happened and I couldn’t get rid of thebug. And it lives up to it. It’s probably the best thing you can do on God’searth that’s legal I guess.”

Noble first broke the record in 1983 behind the wheel of Thrust II. In 1997, the Thrust SSC team, headed by Noble and driver Andy Green,pushed that record through the sound barrier to 763mph.

But Bloodhound is a new dawn and a new car. Unlike Thrust SSC it will be powered by a combination of a single jet and a rocket and it willneed to generate upwards of 47,000lbs thrust if it is to achieve 1,000mph.

The body is part monocoque carbon fibre, part aluminium space frame. The wheels are solid titanium with twin titanium ‘keels’ for traction,no tyres.

One part of the car does bear a closer resemblance to your everydaymotor though. Tucked behind the driver is an 800bhp V12 race engine –but on Bloodhound it just powers the fuel pump.

“This is an iconic project and an iconic vehicle the likes of which wehave never seen before,” says Noble. “It requires very, very advancedtechnologies, there are very few aircraft that can go this fast.”

But he admits that although the design has taken shape – the journeyhas only just begun. The team aims to build the car by September 2009before attempting 800mph. A 900mph attempt will follow a year later,followed, if all goes to plan, by the magic 1,000mph in 2011.

The challenge at the heart of Bloodhound is to create a car capable of 1,000mph – a car 30 per cent faster than any car that has gone before.

In research terms it is a journey into the unknown, and theaerodynamics team at Swansea University – funded by EPSRC – is playinga vital role.

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the team has spent thelast year creating the predictive airflow data that has shaped the car.

In time, the research could lead to better vehicle or aircraft design,improved fuel efficiencies and even new medical techniques.

“From the nose to the tail, anything that has any kind of aerodynamicinfluence we are modelling,” says research assistant and Bloodhound teammember Ben Evans – who as a school boy watched the Thrust SSC recordon TV.

“It’s the kind of thing aerospace engineers would have traditionally donein a wind tunnel, but we’re doing it on a computer, a big multi-processorsuper computer. Wind tunnels have massive limitations. Bloodhound is acar, so it’s rolling on the ground and there are no wind tunnels in existencewhere you can simulate a rolling ground with a car travelling faster thanmach one, faster than the speed of sound.”

This ‘mach factor’ is the major difference between Bloodhound and itspredecessor Thrust SSC. Thrust SSC was a supersonic car in that it crossedthe sound barrier and was supersonic for a matter of seconds.

The science of speedEPSRC aerodynamics research willhelp Bloodhound cut a dash.

EPSRC, a founder sponsorof the project, is fundingthe vital aerodynamicresearch being carried out at Swansea University.

speed freaks 15

But with Bloodhound the target speed is 1,000mph – mach 1.4. It will be going supersonic way beyond mach one, and for a much longer timeperiod, which means the supersonic shockwaves it creates will be farstronger than Thrust SSC and they will interact with the car and the desertfloor for much longer.

“Once you start approaching, and go beyond the speed of sound, youcan no longer send a pressure wave forward to tell the air ahead of you

you’re coming,” explains Dr Evans. “What happens is a big pressure wallbuilds up in front of you. Rather than air slowly and smoothly getting outof the way, at supersonic speeds these changes happen very suddenly in a shockwave.”

Supersonic aircraft create these shockwaves and they dissipate in thesurrounding atmosphere but still reach the ground as a ‘sonic boom’.

Dr Evans adds: “What we’re trying to understand is what happens when this shockwave interacts with a solid surface which is a matter ofcentimetres away.”

What the team do know is this ‘interaction’ creates a phenomenonknown as ‘spray drag’ – a term first coined by Bloodhound team memberand aerodynamicist Ron Ayers during the Thrust SSC attempts.

Spray drag is an additional drag component not accounted for inaerodynamic or rolling resistance theory.

“As the car interacts with the desert, and the shockwaves interact with the desert, they actually eat up the desert floor,” says Dr Evans.

“That introduces sand particles into the aerodynamic flow around the car and this interaction is not accounted for in standard CFD work. We plan to look at this spray drag phenomenon, what happens and when,and how the sand particles impinge on the car.”

The Swansea team are also looking at key systems in isolation. Work hasalready changed the car from twin to single air intake for stability.

Bloodhound will be powered by a rocket and jet engine

Aerodynamic engineer Ben Evans


The car will also sport solid titanium wheels with twin ‘keels’: “That wasfundamentally an aerodynamic design decision,” says Dr Evans. “Westudied different design options, a single keel running down the centre ofthe wheel, a design with three keels and finally the one we went for with two keels. It was chosen as a compromise between lift and drag patterns andminimising the pressure disturbance around the wheel on the desert surface.

“Another thing we have been looking at closely is the exact nose shape.We want a nose that constantly generates a small down force on the front to help keep the car on the ground. But we’re also constantly looking at howwe can minimise spray drag and if we can constantly achieve a positivepressure on the desert surface leading up to the front wheels then hopefullythe surface will remain intact until the front wheels roll over it.”

But Dr Evans and the team also remain focussed on the wider aims of the project and the application of their research in other areas.

“The whole point of doing this is not just to create a fast car. We live in a carbon economy and lots of the issues we face will require engineers andscientists to solve them – part of this project is to inspire young people.”

And sat at his desk in Swansea he has a constant reminder of thepotential of CFD.

“Some of my university colleagues are working on blood flow monitoringthrough the arterial system and trying to predict when aneurysms willexplode through pressure loadings.

“On one side of the office we have pictures of Bloodhound and on theother we have pictures of blood flow through the heart.

“There are the obvious applications in aerospace, but any applicationyou can think of that involves fluid flow can be modelled using CFD.Biomechanical systems seems to be one of the areas CFD is being applied to now.”

This is an iconicproject and an iconicvehicle the likes ofwhich we have neverseen before.Richard Noble

Design team at work: from left Brian Coombes, Ben Evans and Mark Chapman

speed freaks 17

Pushing theboundariesIn 1898, Frenchman Gaston deChasseloup-Laubat reached thespeed of 39mph in his electric-powered Jeantaud – it was the firstofficial land speed record and the race was on.

Intense competition over subsequentyears saw the record pushed furtherand further until on July 21, 1904,Louis Rigolly became the first man to break the magic 100mph barrier.

In 1924, British speed legend Malcolm Campbell broke the record for the first time in Blue Bird – a feathe would repeat a further eight timesbetween 1925 and 1935.

By the 1930s, French roads, Welshbeaches and purpose built race trackssuch as Brooklands had given way toDaytona Beach and Bonneville’s saltflats as the locations of choice.

They might have been running inAmerica but the competition wasdominated by the British, who held the record continuously for 34 yearsuntil 1963.

During that time Campbell passed the300mph mark and in 1947 John Cobbbecame the first to pass 400mph – arecord that would stand for more than15 years.

Throughout the 60s and 70s the jet-powered Americans fought back. The legendary Craig Breedlove pushed through the 500mph barrier in 1964 and fellow American GaryGabelich’s 1970 record, of 630mph,stood for 13 years.

On October 4, 1983, Richard Nobleseized the record back for Britaintaking Thrust2 to 633mph.

Fourteen years later, the Thrust SSCteam returned to Nevada’s Black RockDesert – this time with RAF pilot AndyGreen behind the wheel – and wentsupersonic. That record, 763mph, is the fastest any car has travelled to date.

How fast is Bloodhound SSC?

Family saloon car

130mphFormula One car

200mph

Boeing 747

608mph

Bloodhound SSC

1000mph?

Concorde

1350mph

Noble adds: “All the research that has gone on in the last year is predictive figures, for instance allthe work at Swansea University. That’s an enormous amount of work and commitment from theteam. They’re creating predictive data and we design to that aerodynamic data which is crucial.

“We have to get to 800mph, then we can compare the predictive data with the real data from thecar, which itself is a travelling laboratory. Some of it will match up really well, some of it won’t, andwe will make all sorts of changes and the car will come out again in 2010.”

Noble knows from his own experience that the Land Speed Record’s appeal is enduring, but why?“It’s a man challenge. This is something special. There’s huge interest from car drivers with everyonesaying ‘I could drive fast in a straight line given the chance’ and there’s a tremendous range oftechnologies involved.

“You really are pushing things to the absolute limit and of course everyone loves power, speed, cars and engineering. There is a great love of that.

“It’s open technology access, a real challenge and real drama because you’re doing something that has never been done before.” Then he adds: “It’s also perceived as being very dangerous and so generates huge global interest.”

To keep up to date with the Bloodhound SSC project visit: www.bloodhoundssc.com

To listen to the Bloodhound team talk about the challenges ahead visit: www.epsrc.ac.uk/bloodhound

It’s over a year now since the words ‘credit crunch’ were first uttered –signalling a recognition that consumer debt could have as much impact on the global economy as its corporate counterpart.

The fact is the amount owed by consumers exceeds that owed bycompanies by more than 50 per cent, having overtaken it in the mid-80s

both in the UK and the US. “As we’ve discovered with the so-called ‘credit crunch’, banks get into a

lot of trouble when people default on their mortgages,” says SouthamptonUniversity’s Professor Lyn Thomas, “and the problem is that the way thatbanks have modelled the default risk for a group of mortgage borrowerswith similar risk characteristics leaves much to be desired.”

Concerns about consumer debt make it increasingly important todevelop effective models for understanding, predicting, and managingconsumer financial risk, at both personal and corporate levels.

This need led to the creation of an EPSRC-funded QuantitativeFinancial Risk Management Centre comprising groups from threeuniversities: the Mathematical Sciences Institute at Imperial CollegeLondon, the Credit Research Centre at Edinburgh University, and theManagement School at Southampton University.

One strand of this research is being undertaken by Professor Thomas. It aims to develop improved risk assessment and management tools for theconsumer financial services sector, in response to the rapid regulatory,competitive, and technological changes.

Financial models for consumer lending have existed for some time.Credit scoring has been around since 1956, but that deals with theindividual’s risk of defaulting and does nothing to model risk for portfoliosof loans.

“An individual consumer’s ability to pay back a particular type of

mortgage gets lost in the noise when that loan gets bundled up with othersin a process called securitisation, which allows the bank to sell a bundle ofdebts and immediately realise the value of the loans. The price they canget for that bundle should reflect the actual risk of default of all theindividual loans within that bundle, but the credit crunch suggests existingmodels didn’t work.”

This top down approach to pricing mortgage-based securities clearlyhasn’t worked, so what Professor Thomas proposes is modelling the processfrom the bottom up, starting with the risk of each individual loan as thebasis for assessing overall risk.

In the past, banks had to put aside 8 per cent of their lending (4 percent in the case of mortgage lending), against the possibility of default.

“Now the rules state that provided a bank has good models of the risksof default then the outcome of these models can be used when determininghow much needs to be set aside,” explains Professor Thomas. “If the bankscan create better models of consumer behaviour to assess risk, then theycan use those probabilities instead, which means a more efficient use of funds.”

What Professor Thomas and his colleagues want to establish is how a particular group’s risk of defaulting is likely to change over an entireeconomic cycle – the time from when an economy grows, through when it stalls or contracts to when it grows again – rather than simply usinghistorical data. One tool the team is considering is that of ‘survivalanalysis’, a statistical technique that was first used to predict biologicalmortality (answering questions such as what percentage of a population will have died by a specific time) and later adapted to predicting mechanicalfailure and assessing the outcome of medical procedures and therapeuticdrug use.


Danger: risk of defaultFailed risk analysis and the sub-prime crisis have sent economic shockwaves around the globe. New EPSRC-funded research is helping the financial world avoid repeat mistakes.Words: Tony Newton

Its use in consumer risk management is relatively new, and ProfessorThomas anticipates that it will be useful in predicting when a specific eventsuch as mortgage default will happen in a well-defined group.

But given the huge amount of corporate finance research undertakenworldwide, are there not models that can simply be ported to consumerfinancial research. “We can take some nice ideas from those models, but wecan’t take the models,” says Professor Thomas. “One reason that corporatemodels don’t transfer is that in the corporate world, a company goes underif its loans exceed its assets. But consumers generally don’t know the totalvalue of their assets and probably couldn’t realise them anyway.”

And where does the data for such modelling come from?“Things differ from country to country. In the US, the credit bureaux

know every line of credit held by an individual. In the UK, they knowabout most but not all the credit lines while in Germany, concern forprivacy means there’s even less information available.”

“For research purposes though the most useful source of data is thebehavioural scores for each individual borrower, which are recalculated by

the banks every month at an individual level. Anonymised samples of suchdata allow researchers to build alternative models. Some of our data isfrom Hong Kong which is particularly useful in modelling the completeeconomic cycle because they had two recessions between 2001 and 2005when the UK economy was benign during this period.”

But what will the financial community actually do with the models thatProfessor Thomas creates? “We write papers, present at conferences andrun workshops about our work that are very well attended by the banks. As a result some of the large UK banks and building societies are nowusing survival analysis techniques that allow them to produce new estimateson the risks involved in consumer lending. Indeed, one of them has built aprofitability model on top of survival analysis to create a tool to help decidewhether to launch new products aimed at specific groups.”

For more information about the Quantitative Financial RiskManagement Centre visit: www3.imperial.ac.uk/mathsinstitute/programmes/research/bankfin/qfrmc

financial risk 19

Some of the largeUK banks andbuilding societies arenow using survivalanalysis techniquesthat allow them to produce newestimates on the risks involved inconsumer lending.Professor Lyn Thomas


Dr David Spring Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

Forty years ago, researchers thought thatbacteria were single cell organisms living inisolation. Now it has become clear that mostbacteria live in communities, making themmore able to withstand attack by immune

systems and drugs. Researchers discovered in the 1990sthat bacteria are able to gang up in this way by ‘talking’ to each other. So if researchers could hack into theseconversations and prevent bacteria banding together, then antibiotics would have a much better chance ofdestroying the bugs.

So why are bacteria talking to each other? Thereason is bacteria can coordinate their behaviour ifthey communicate. This may be to respond to a changein environment or nutrients, or to defend themselvesagainst attack. By working together they are better able to survive. It also means they are more likely tosuccessfully infect a host and avoid the host’s immunesystem. David Spring, an EPSRC advanced fellow in theDepartment of Chemistry at Cambridge University,explains: “If a single cell were to release its toxin, then itbecomes vulnerable to attack by the host’s defences. But if the bacteria wait until there are enough of them,they can launch their toxins en masse and stand a betterchance of overwhelming the immune system.”

Bacteria communicate with each other by producingsignalling molecules. “Different species use differentmolecules,” explains Dr Spring. “There are severaldifferent classes of signalling molecule, and within each class, there are also minor variations.”

In some cases a single bacterial species can use morethan one signal molecule. The bacterium may respondto each molecule in a different way. “In this sense, thesignal molecules can be thought of as words within alanguage, each having a different meaning,” continuesDr Spring, a synthetic organic chemist with particularinterest in biological applications.

Each bacterium produces a small signalling molecule and each bacterium can detect when the number ofthese molecules reaches a certain level. This tells themthat there are enough other bacteria present to make aparticular response. The effect was first detected in the

talking bacteria 21

It’s good to talk Can we talk our way out of infection

by learning the language of bacteria?Words: Maria Burke

If the bacteria wait untilthere are enough ofthem, they can launchtheir toxins en masse andstand a better chance ofoverwhelming theimmune system.Dr David Spring

marine bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which lives in the light-producing organ ofcertain fish and squid. Each cell within the bacteria population produces asmall amount of a signalling molecule. Although the amount produced byindividual cells is low, en masse high concentrations accumulate. When theconcentration reaches a certain level, it activates the proteins in the fish thatproduce light. The behaviour is called ‘quorum sensing’ because thepopulation must reach a ‘quorum’ before a response is triggered.

In the natural environment, there are many different bacteria livingtogether. Although they employ different ‘languages’ there is evidence thatsome species can communicate with each other, says Dr Spring. This ‘cross-talk’, which can be thought of as a ‘microbial Esperanto’, has implicationsin many areas of microbiology as in nature bacteria almost always exist inmixed species populations, like biofilms.

Around 80 per cent of bacteria live in colonies or biofilms; examples areplaque on teeth, or the scum on the bottom of a washing-up bowl. Bacteriain these biofilms are particularly resistant to attack because the film iscovered with a protective sugar (polysaccharide). A good example isPseudomonas aeruginosa, a widespread bug associated with multi-drug resistantinfections of patients, particularly those suffering from AIDS, severe burnwounds or cystic fibrosis. The lungs of cystic fibrosis patients are full ofmucous, an ideal environment for P. aeruginosa, and patients often getinfected early in life. The bacteria form a biofilm which is particularlyresistant to antibiotics and over time the lung deteriorates.


Researchers like Dr Springand his team are looking at how to hijack bacteriacommunications and change the message.

Bacteria group themselves intobiofilms when their cross-talk tellsthem there are enough of themaround. But researchers like DrSpring and his team are looking at how to hijack bacteriacommunications and change themessage. “If we could interfere with their signalling mechanism,then we could prevent them joininga biofilm or stop them producingtoxins. If not in a biofilm, thebacteria would revert to a free-floating single cell state where wewould stand a better chance ofdealing with them.”

There are several approaches to disrupting bacterial talk. Dr Spring’s team is developing the idea of quorum quenching,which involves destroying the signal molecule. “When in the body, the lactone ring of the signal

molecule is hydrolysed and has a half-life of one to two days. This means itis degrading all the time. What we are trying to do is to develop an enzymethat will catalyse this degradation so destroying the signalling mechanismmuch faster.”

Dr Spring’s group is also developing and screening synthetic alternativesto the signalling molecules. These alternatives would change the ‘message’by blocking the action of the real signalling molecules and so preventing aparticular response. “Such molecules should have fewer side effects and beless likely to promote drug resistance than current antibiotics,” he says.Other groups are investigating natural alternatives, such as algae and garlic,which may inhibit cell to cell signalling.

Dr Spring is optimistic about the potential of this work for conditionssuch as cystic fibrosis, but he stresses that it’s very early days yet. But, whilemedical applications may be many years in the future, he is convinced thatthis approach could find other uses. A molecule that prevented bacteriaforming biofilms could be used eventually in antibacterial toothpaste orantifouling paints for the hulls of ships, for example.

For more information about EPSRC’s physical sciencesprogramme and opportunities for involvement contact: Andrew Bourne, [email protected]

For more information about the Spring Group visit: www-spring.ch.cam.ac.uk

talking bacteria 23

Right: The bacteria Serratia marsescens (red),Chromobacterium violaceum (blue/purple)Pseudomonas aeruginosa (light green)produce pigments that are under quorumsensing control

If we couldinterfere with their signallingmechanism wecould prevent them joining abiofilm or stopthem producingtoxins. Dr David Spring


Not since the emergence of silicon has asemiconductor materialcreated such excitement.First developed more

than three decades ago, galliumnitride (GaN) can emit brilliant light using very small amounts ofelectricity. Over the last couple ofyears, light-emitting diodes (LEDs)incorporating GaN have begunappearing in applications such ascamera flashes, bicycle lights,mobile phones and interior lightingfor buses, trains and planes. Eventhe façade of Buckingham Palace isnow illuminated using GaN LEDs –with running costs less than those of an electric kettle. And it is UKscientists who are playing a key role in unlocking the environment-protecting, health-improving,money-saving potential of thisextraordinary man-made material.

For GaN, home and officelighting is the real Holy Grail. Such lighting currently accounts for around 20 per cent of UKelectricity consumption. GaN couldreduce this to 5 per cent. Switchingto GaN lighting could thereforedeliver major cuts in carbon dioxideemissions from power stations and preserve fossil fuel reserves.

“GaN LEDs have hugepotential,” says Professor ColinHumphreys, who heads theCambridge Centre for GalliumNitride, supported by EPSRC. “Inparticular, they are incredibly long-lasting. A GaN LED can burn for100,000 hours. In practical terms,that means it only needs replacingafter 60 years of typical householduse. Also, unlike the energy-savingcompact fluorescent lights now inuse, GaN LEDs don’t containmercury. Disposal therefore isn’tsuch an environmental headache.”

Professor Colin Humphreys Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, University of Cambridge

GaN LEDs are incrediblylong-lasting.Professor Colin Humphreys

gallium nitride 25

The light atthe endof thetunnel?

It could slash UK electricity consumption, kill MRSA and purify water…even the Queen is a fan – so is gallium nitride too good to be true?

Words: Barry Hague


The centre is working on an innovative technique for growing GaN on silicon wafers, rather thanthe sapphire wafers used to date. This could deliver a tenfold reduction inmanufacturing costs and help GaN lightingpenetrate new markets.

GaN lighting shouldstart making its markin homes and officeswithin about fiveyears, that won’t just be good news for the environment.It will also benefitconsumers, in termsof convenience,electricity bills andquality of life.Professor Colin Humphreys

But if the full potential is to become reality, important barriers need tobe tackled. At the moment, GaN LEDs are too expensive to manufacturefor wide-scale deployment in homes and workplaces. The harsh quality of GaN-produced light is another key limiting factor.

UK materials scientists are at the forefront of global efforts to resolvethese problems. In particular, the Cambridge centre has established itselfas a world-leading authority at the cutting edge of GaN research. Set up in 2000 and underpinned by EPSRC funding ever since, it has recentlydeveloped a detailed new theory that explains the mystery of exactly whyGaN emits light so strongly. Such understanding is absolutely vital toimproving GaN lighting’s quality and efficiency.

“GaN lighting should start making its mark in homes and offices withinabout five years,” says Professor Humphreys. “That won’t just be good news for the environment. It will also benefit consumers, in terms of convenience,electricity bills and quality of life.”

The centre is also working on an innovative technique for growing GaN on silicon wafers, rather than the sapphire wafers used to date. This coulddeliver a tenfold reduction in manufacturing costs and so help GaN lightingpenetrate new markets. Another project is investigating how GaN lighting could be made to mimic sunlight, which could have important benefits forsufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

A crucial aspect of the centre’s work is collaboration with otheruniversities, such as Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield Hallam, and a range of industrial partners.

Looking ahead, the possibilities for GaN lighting appear limitless.Currently, GaN LEDs are phosphor-coated to transform the light from blue into white. But there could be scope to remove the coating andincorporate mini-LEDs, each producing a different colour, in the overall‘lightbulb’. Together the mini-LEDs would produce white light, but home-owners or office-workers could alter the precise balance (e.g. to a bluishlight) to suit their mood.

GaN could even transform healthcare and revolutionise drinking water provision in developing countries.

“Some of these applications might be achievable in 10 years,” saysProfessor Humphries. “But we could see the technology break into thedomestic and workplace lighting market in half that time.”

One thing seems absolutely certain – this extraordinary lightingtechnology is set for an incredibly bright future.

For more information about EPSRC’s materials programme and opportunities for involvement contact: Susie Douglas,[email protected]

For more information contact: Professor Colin Humphreys, Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, University of Cambridge, Tel: 01223 334458, e-mail: [email protected]

Right: Packaged green LEDs based onInGaN multiple quantum well devices grownin the Thomas Swan MOCVD reactor at theCambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride.

Far right: Professor Colin Humphriesworking with one of the centre’s state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopes

gallium nitride 27

The CambridgeCentre for GalliumNitrideEstablished in 2000, its researchwork is underpinned by EPSRCfunding. The current grantamounts to around £1.6 millionover three years. The TechnologyStrategy Board and the EU arealso key sources of funding. The centre’s industrial partnersinclude Aixtron, Forge Europa,QinetiQ, Sharp Europe, Philips,Semelab and RFMD.

Bulb lifetime

Shine onGallium nitride has a bright future that stretches far beyond the lighting marketSurgeryIt is very hard to detect exactly where a tumour ends andpatients undergoing cancer surgery have to be kept underanaesthetic while cells are taken away for tests. This mayhappen several times during an operation. In the future patients could be given harmless drugs that attach themselvesto cancer cells, which can then be distinguished when a blue GaN LED is shone on them, revealing the tumour’s edge,quickly and unmistakably.

HealthcareDeep ultra-violet GaN light will kill all viruses and bacteria so fitting such a GaN LED inside a water pipe will instantlyeradicate diseases, as well as mosquito larvae and othercontaminants. A similar approach could prove effective againsthospital ‘superbugs’ such as MRSA and C.difficile. Simplyshining a GaN torch at a hospital wall or trolley could kill anyinfections.

A centre project is exploring how GaN light could be made tomimic sunlight. Ultimately, this could have health benefits for theUK’s estimated three million sufferers from the depressivecondition Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

CommunicationsTransistors made from GaN can operate at a highertemperature, higher power and higher frequency than silicon or gallium arsenide transistors. If used as amplifiers in mobilephone base stations, for example, the base stations could beplaced ten times as far apart as is currently the case.

ComputingGaN optical devices could be used in the optical computers oftomorrow, which will operate 10,000 times faster than today’selectronic computers. GaN quantum dots could also be usedas single photon sources in quantum computers.

Conventional: up to 1,000 hours

Compact fluorescent lights(CFLs): up to 15,000 hours

GaN LED: up to100,000 hours

Potential to cut UK electricity consumption by

15%

Britain’s cultural heritage is under attack. Centuries old stoneworkcould crumble, collections documenting long forgotten erascould disappear and the fabric of our rich history could crackand rot. But the threat is not from marauding philistines hellbent on destruction but from more subtle, often silent, menaces.

Climate change is having a major impact on our historic buildings andchanges in indoor temperature and humidity could cause huge damage to art collections, books and other artefacts.

But the threats are not just environmental, some inks used in colourphotography could simply fade and disappear before our eyes.

Earlier this year, two of the UK’s research councils, EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), initiated the joint £8mScience and Heritage programme to explore these issues. The programmewill combine skills from a diverse range of science, engineering and arts and humanities backgrounds to build expertise and develop new techniquesto combat these 21st century threats. The first ten projects, launched thissummer, will fund new PhD studentships to work in collaboration withheritage professionals.

In York, x-ray techniques, including x-ray absorption fine structurespectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, will be used for the firsttime to analyse restoration work carried out to York Minster over thecenturies. The limestone cathedral was completed in 1472 and restorationof the exterior stonework has been part of life ever since. Scaffolding moves


Building a future for the pastNew investment will bringheritage conservation up to date.Words: Chris Buratta

science heritage 29

continuously around the building in a 100-year cycle as the Minster’s teamof stonemasons and carvers restore decayed and weathered limestone.

The Minster spends £500,000 per year on restoration and York Minster

Revealed – a five-year programme to restore the East Front and half of the Great East Window – will cost £12m. The new research, at the Universityof York, hopes to bring the repair process into sharp scientific focus. “Most of the work we’re doing is concerned with how magnesian limestoneand mortars used for repairs of magnesian limestone-based architecturedecay and weather,” says Karen Wilson, who will be leading the projectwith colleagues Adam Lee and Kate Giles. “We will look at previousbuilding materials used in restoration and the different compositions tounderstand why they have decayed or survived. We will then try to adviseteams on the best materials to use.”

Dr Wilson says over the past 400 years some restoration work had,inadvertently, caused damage to the historic stonework. She adds that one of the major threats to magnesian limestone were sulphates, commonin many cements and mortars. But other factors, including the position and exposure of brickwork and the interaction with new pollutants, was also a factor in the weathering process. “We are trying to put a morescientific handle on why certain materials are the right choice. We are using techniques that have not been used traditionally to look at thesematerials and get additional information.”

Louise Hampson, York Minster Revealed’s project director, says in additionto usual weathering factors, the Minster’s imposing scale created its ownproblems. “There are huge climactic issues because of the height and sizeof the building. It has its own microclimate and the wind speeds can bemassive. With large flat planes we have tremendous air current issues.” She adds the overall aim is to strike a balance between the restoration of damage and ensuring York Minster remains a shining example ofmediaeval architecture for generations to come.

But it is not just built heritage that is under threat. Changes in climatecould affect the indoor environment of historic buildings, buildings thatoften house priceless art collections and irreplaceable libraries. Work at theUniversity of East Anglia, led by Professor Peter Brimblecombe, will modelclimate implications for these interior environments and explore the possibleeffects on heritage collections. Climate models for the next 100 years predictrising temperatures, leading to drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.“What you see is it will get drier in late summer and suddenly this rapidshift to high humidity as we move into winter. That occurs in autumns thatare much warmer,” says Professor Brimblecombe. “If you’re a fungal spore, on a book binding or painting, you think ‘hey, it’s damp, hey, it’s warm... I can grow’.”

But the possibility of increased mould and fungal damage is not theonly climate change threat to historic artefacts. “Organic material, leatherbindings, wood, anything like that can decay more rapidly if the climate is

The programme will allow academics and heritage managers to work together to better understand and protect the UK’scultural heritage.Science and Heritage director May Cassar

Science and HeritageEPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Councilhave jointly committed £8m to the Science and Heritageprogramme.

It will bring together the skills and expertise of the two researchcouncils’ communities to gain a deeper understanding of both the physical make-up and the historic context of heritage.

This will help identify and overcome the cultural andenvironmental challenges the heritage sector faces in the 21st century.

It will also address concerns raised by the House of LordsScience and Technology Committee. An inquiry, in 2006,concluded that a decline in the heritage science discipline – scientific activity that can benefit the heritage sector – wasthreatening the UK’s cultural legacy.

Awaiting restoration: A carving of St Peterand an area of tracery on the East Front atYork Minster.

more humid. They are also exposed to more stresses by rapid changes inhumidity and this can create cracks. Particularly, if the surface is damp, and is trying to expand, but the centre remains dry.”

Professor Brimblecombe says dust could even harden into a cementedcrust in more humid environments. Working with English Heritage andothers, the team will try to gain an increased understanding of these threatsand work with heritage conservation staff to help minimise damage. On theplus side, Professor Brimblecombe says once implications were understood,mitigation measures could often be very simple and inexpensive – fromusing dust covers earlier in the year to managing the numbers of visitors or the way exhibitions are displayed.

Speaking at the launch earlier this year, the programme’s director,Professor May Cassar said: “This substantial investment of research fundswill begin to make right the chronic shortage of investment in research andcapacity building in cultural heritage which in so many forms – museums,galleries, archives, libraries and historic buildings – contributes so much to the education, leisure and wellbeing of communities and visitors alike. The programme will allow UK academics and heritage managers to worktogether to better understand and protect the vast array of artefacts,buildings and places that make up the UK’s cultural heritage.”

For a full list of funded projects and further information: www.heritagescience.ac.uk

The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center not onlychanged attitudes towards security forever, they also encouragedmany people to look at safety in a new way. “The attacks on theWorld Trade Center towers brought home to the world theimportance of providing an adequate and robust means of

evacuation in high rise buildings,” explains Ed Galea, professor ofmathematical modelling and director of the Fire Safety Engineering Groupat the University of Greenwich. “The evacuation of the World TradeCenter complex after the 9/11 attacks was one of the largest full-scaleevacuations of people in modern times. This provides a useful vehicle forunderstanding human behaviour under extreme conditions. Over 14,000people escaped from the buildings, and their experiences can provide a keyto understanding how to design a safer built environment.”

To make the most of this unique pool of information Professor Galea is leading a group of psychologists and experts in fire safety engineeringdrawn from the Universities of Greenwich, Liverpool and Ulster in anEPSRC-funded research project – High-rise Evacuation EvaluationDatabase (HEED). A major aim of the project, which ended in April 2008,was to collect and analyse first-hand accounts from 9/11 survivors.

“The concept behind HEED was to go to the World Trade Center with a team of trained research psychologists and interview survivors ourselves,”explains Professor Galea. “In that way we hoped to extract as muchrelevant information as possible from those who had actually lived throughthe experience.”

Collecting data by means of personal interviews was difficult to arrange. Getting in touch with survivors and gaining ethics approvals froma wide variety of agencies were just some of the huge practical challenges the team faced.

In the end, a team of six psychologists carried out four differentinterviewing campaigns in New York. As well as developing suitable

interview protocols to ensure the maximum amount of information couldbe collected from survivors in a sensitive way, the team also had to findways to make it possible for interviewees to recall the sequences and timingof events. In addition, the psychologists had to be carefully trained toensure they had the fire engineering knowledge to ask the right questions.

Information was collected about timing of actions and events, andphysical characteristics, such as fitness and body mass index. The group also wanted to determine other factors such as the survivors’ perception of risk, the attributes – such as fear of injury or loss of life – that weredriving the risk and the effect of changes in risk perception on behaviourduring the evacuation.

Each interview could last for up to three hours. “We didn’t believe that people would want to talk to us for as long as they did,” says Professor Galea.


On September 11, 2001, more than 2,750people were killed in the World Trade Centerattacks. A further 14,000 evacuated New York’stwin towers to safety. Now those survivors’stories are helping to build a safer future.Words: Nina Morgan

Over 14,000 people escaped from the buildings, and theirexperiences can provide a key to understanding how to designa safer built environment.Professor Ed Galea

Survivors’stories

safety engineering 31

“The readiness of people to provide information was one of the surprises in this study.” In all, the group interviewed 271 survivors and collected over 6,000 pages of transcripts. This, notes, Professor Galea, “is a hugelyimportant body of data in itself. We will be making it available to bone fideresearchers all over the world, so that it can become a valuable internationalresource for others to use.”

To help interviewees recall and visualise the events and to help themestimate the crowd densities the group used buildingEXODUS, anevacuation simulation software package developed previously by Professor Galea and his colleagues in the Fire Safety Engineering Group.The information about response times, density of people on stairways,speed of movement and the effects of fatigue emerging from this vastdatabase are already providing new insights into evacuation behaviourwhich could lead to the development of safer evacuation procedures andcontribute to improved building regulations around the world.

For example, their analysis has revealed that people travel more slowlydown stairs than engineers had previously estimated and that the speed oftravel is not related to growing levels of obesity in the community, as someevacuation specialists had suggested. Instead, the slower speeds can beexplained by the high crowd density on the stairs. The modelling alsoshowed that the floor population – or number of people on each floor –effectively limits the height of a building that can be evacuated by stairsalone. This, in turn, suggests that for buildings above a critical height, itwould be better to design lifts that can be used in emergencies, rather thanrelying solely on stairs for evacuations.

The analysis of response times also indicates that providing people withgood information about what is happening and advice about what to docan significantly reduce response times and lead to a safer evacuation.

“Quantifying the behaviour of people in emergency situations will leadto an improved set of evacuation modelling tools,” says Professor Galea. “This, in turn, will lead to better, safer and more efficient buildings.”

For more information about EPSRC-funded projects related to the built environment, construction or fire safety engineering andopportunities for involvement contact: Matthew Davis, [email protected] or Gareth Buchanan, [email protected]

For more information about The Fire Safety Engineering Groupvisit: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk

Left: Evacuation simulation of the World Trade Center north towerRight: Professor Ed Galea (left) and Professor Jim Shields at theWorld Trade Center site in New York.

In all, the groupinterviewed 271 survivors and collected over 6,000 pages oftranscripts.

The Fire Safety Engineering GroupThe 30 strong Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) based at the University of Greenwich, is made up of mathematicians,behavioural psychologists, fire safety engineers and computerscientists.

The group, which was established in 1986, carries out researchinto fire dynamics and human behaviour associated with fire. As part of their research they have developed a number ofsoftware packages, including SMARTFIRE fire simulationsoftware, and the EXODUS suite of evacuation models whichare being used in 30 countries around the world.

Recipients of a number of prestigious national and internationalawards, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize 2002 and theEuropean IST Award 2004, the group’s airEXODUS softwarehas been used in projects for the aviation industry, includingdesign analysis of the new Airbus A380 aircraft.

In addition, they are participating in the European Research andTechnology project, NACRE (New Aircraft Concepts Research),and hosted the second NACRE conference held in Greenwichin July. They have also recently presented details of how thefuturistic ‘Flying Wing’ aircraft design, which could carry over1000 passengers, could be evacuated safely.

Keeping UK drug discovery on top ofthe worldAs R&D goes global, EPSRC is working withthree pharmaceutical giants to ensure the UKcontinues to be a world leaderWords: Chris Buratta


In 2004, three of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies putcompetitive rivalries to one side and joined with EPSRC to begin anunprecedented project. The companies were AstraZeneca,GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. The aim was to ensure UK drug discoverers – synthetic organic chemists – remained on top of the

world in an increasingly global market.It was the first time the companies had worked together on an initiative

of this kind. Working with EPSRC, the result has been the design and pilotof new PhD studentships aimed at keeping the UK’s pharmaceutical baseone step ahead of global competition.

The extended four-year training model includes increased exposure toindustry, problem solving and strategic thinking. Graduates will gainexperience of presenting and justifying ideas to a knowledgeable audience –as required in the commercial sector – and these skills will be incorporatedinto the training.

In addition, the model will create well-connected networks betweenuniversities to ensure successful practices at one can be easily transferred to another – allowing the studentship programme to evolve under its own steam.

Synthetic organic chemistry is the life blood of the pharmaceuticalindustry as David Hollinshead, of AstraZeneca, spells out: “SyntheticOrganic Chemistry works through the whole spectrum of drug discovery,development and supply chain. It is the bread and butter of what we do.”

Dave Alker, former head of recruitment and academic liaison at Pfizer,was also involved from the outset. He adds: “Traditionally, large pharmahas spent a lot of time and effort supporting undergraduates and PhDs togenerate the next generation of drug discoverers. You cannot discover drugs

without top quality synthetic organic chemists.”But, he adds, despite its vital importance, the big players were not

working together on this shared goal.That all changed in 2004. Against a backdrop of growing investment

in emerging economies such as China and India, and prompted by aninternational review of UK chemistry – the Whitesides report – that statedit would become increasing difficult for UK chemistry to remaininternationally competitive, the companies came together.

A year earlier, the government-commissioned Lambert review, anindependent review of business-university collaboration, highlighted thatR&D had gone global and that businesses were locating activity in countrieswith outstanding research centres, not necessarily their home countries.

The report, that singled out pharmaceutical and defence sectors as theUK’s major sources of R&D investment, concluded that increasedcollaboration between business and university research departments wouldbring significant economic benefits.

GSK, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are global organisations, and the UKdivisions knew that if UK skills slipped behind, relocation of activity was a possibility.

“We benefit, and have historically benefited, in the UK from a greaterconcentration of pharma-industry for its size than anywhere else. A goodeconomic cost base, good quality skills in academia, good quality peopleand very good education and training practices – there has been adisproportionate investment in UK pharma for these reasons. We wanted to help the UK retain its competitiveness. We wanted to make it even more competitive in this global economy,” says Hollinshead.

Alker adds: “We represented the biggest research sites in the UK and we

drug discovery 33

We believe what we have done is unique, not only in the UK but globally, that big companiesare helping to create anenvironment where we cancontinue to be successful.David Hollinshead, AstraZeneca

started talking about recruitment, did we have difficulties hiring and whatwere the gaps. We said ‘this is crazy, every time we talk, we talk about thesame things’. These were generic issues we all wanted to solve.”

All three companies shared the same vision. They believed UK PhDswere internationally competitive but, in an increasingly global market theywanted the UK to raise the bar.

GSK, AstraZeneca and Pfizer had all built a good relationship withEPSRC throughout the 1990s, capitalising on training schemes andinitiatives. Now EPSRC would provide the link with academia and strategy,with the companies providing the industry knowledge, that would shape thenew training opportunities in the UK.

“EPSRC, through its activities, has a very well developed understandingof which areas need to move forward, it linked us to strategy andunderstanding of the academic base and it had an agenda very well alignedto our own,” says Tony Wood, head of chemistry at Pfizer.

Malcolm Skingle, GSK’s director of external science and technology,says EPSRC was able to look at the task in hand before offering a solution.

He adds: “EPSRC are the ‘blank sheet of paper’ research council.Rather than trying to force every situation into one of their schemes, theyfirst ask ‘what is the problem?’ and ‘how can we help address it?’.Sometimes this involves a bespoke mechanism, sitting outside their normalschemes, to address the issue.

“One of the unique selling points of the UK is you can pick up thephone to the research council to articulate industry needs and very quicklydo great things together to address the issue.”

All three companies are clear that the initiative was about supportingand sustaining a pool of talent in the UK.

“At the moment large pharma is under pressure from budget cuts,reorganisations and redundancies. This is about the whole sector, and thepharma sector is made up of a myriad of companies, small start-ups and SMEs that provide the technology to major pharma players,” says Alker.

“There will be a better quality product for the whole sector, not justthese three companies. This is going to be successful, a measure of howsuccessful will be around the problem solving and creativity gap. That is the bit that students didn’t get exposure to before, it’s not that they couldn’tdo it.”

The scheme, although in its infancy, represents a major step forward inindustrial-academic collaboration, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

And those involved, keenly monitoring the progress of the first studentintake, have high hopes for the future.

“We want an internationally competitive UK research environment andto develop that we need the best trained people. This could be thedistinguishing feature for the UK. We believe what we have done is unique,not only in the UK but globally, that big companies are helping to create anenvironment where we can continue to be successful at a time when we faceincreasing pressure and some businesses are relocating activities to otherparts of the world,” says Hollinshead.

“Colleagues in the US say ‘we don’t have anything like this, we don’thave the same collaborative co-operation’. They have to work far harder to make it work. Here the infrastructure they see is very positive.”

Wood sees more opportunities for the future: “From my point of viewthis is the beginning of a range of areas we will be looking to work togetheron to help support the pipeline of chemistry talent in the UK.”

But having pulled together and identified the gaps in a changingeconomic landscape, Alker warns against resting on laurels: “The challengenow is for companies to get together with EPSRC and say ‘what will weneed in 2020’.”

For further information: www.epsrc.ac.uk

Made in the UKTo make tomorrow’s medicines, the UK’s pharmaceuticalcompanies need to recruit people of the highest quality andintellectual capability in the world. A key need is for doctoral-level synthetic organic chemists who have the appropriatebreadth and depth of skills.

EPSRC, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer havedeveloped a shared vision to work together to boost the trainingof such highly skilled and talented people. High-quality doctoral-level research training in organic synthetic chemistry has beenestablished with students undertaking an extended four-yeardoctorate, which includes exposure to an industrial environment.A community of expertise involving some of the very best UKacademic organic chemists, students and industrial partners isbeing established to share best practice and tackle problems.

“The programme takes some of the very best experience andtraining developed around the UK and builds on it, shares it,and incorporates the very real needs of world leading industry,”said EPSRC’s John Baird, head of knowledge transfer, whohelped establish this activity.

“We hope it will send a powerful signal that EPSRC is taking a key leadership role in helping to connect the very best UKacademic researchers with UK industry to deliver a win-winposition. It will not only raise the impact of EPSRC’s funding for research and training but should also help the academiccommunity to share and generate new knowledge andstrengthen links with industry. It’s vitally important for the UK toattract talented people to study science and engineering, makethem aware of some of the intellectually challenging problemsthat exist and equip them with the skills to tackle them.”


profile 34

Professor David Payne’s seminalbreakthroughs in optical fibretechnologies have revolutionisedworldwide telecommunication andfuelled the explosion in internet growth.

He is one of the world’s leading photonicsresearchers and director of the OptoelectronicsResearch Centre (ORC) at SouthamptonUniversity.

He is the winner of the 2008 Marconi Prize – joining a list of winners that includesWorld Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Leeand Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Among his many achievements, his teamdeveloped the Erbium-Doped Optical Amplifierin 1987 – a key device for internet expansionthrough its ability to transmit and amplify vastamounts of data.

As a leading university entrepreneur,Professor Payne’s activities have led to aphotonics cluster of ten companies surroundingthe ORC.

In 2000, he founded SPI Lasers plc, a leadingsupplier of high power fibre lasers. In 2005, thecompany successfully floated on the AlternativeInvestment Market and is now being acquired byTrumpf GmbH, the world’s largest manufacturerof industrial lasers.

He was born in England but brought up in Africa. He returned to the UK in 1964 to study electrical engineering at SouthamptonUniversity – where he has spent his career todate. He was made a CBE in 2004 and is aFellow of both the Royal Society and RoyalAcademy of Engineering.

Professor Payne has been supported byEPSRC funding throughout his career.

Optical telecommunications was in itsinfancy when you began your researchcareer – what attracted you to thisemerging field?(laughs) Serendipity! I was incredibly fortunate in being one of the world’s first PhD students in this burgeoning field. I always wanted to doengineering at the more innovative end. Growingup in Africa I had an engineering backgroundbecause we had to build things ourselves. Youcouldn’t go to the store and buy a model aircraft.

Although, my plan was to go into industry,

I realised I could make a huge difference to the world by riding a wave, this great Britishinnovation of optical telecommunications. And I could get my industrial kicks by formingcompanies.

Is it still as exciting as when you started?It’s just as exciting now, if not more so. We arerapidly using up the bandwidth of this wonderfulfibre medium and in the UK we are fallingbehind in new applications because many nationsare already providing fibre all the way to thehome. Today’s YouTube usage alone exceeds the entire traffic of the internet in year 2000.The challenge is what comes next and how dowe solve the forthcoming bandwidth bottlenecks.

What do you consider your greatestachievement…and why?In optical telecommunications we created amagnificent machine, a world-wide network of fibres spanning the oceans, over mountainsand across the continents. That has been thecommunications dream since Greek times, when they lit fires to relay messages. We havefinally found the solution – huge bandwidth over unlimited distances using optical fibres.

That fibre network is what’s behind theinternet – it couldn’t be done based on copper.It’s a huge source of pride to me that you can go into villages in Africa and South East Asiaand see they can communicate with the world,that they have the internet.

What are the most important questions facing science?I would paraphrase it as ‘how we learn to livewith the limited resources available to us and

how we manage them without conflict’. The planet we live on looks increasingly limitedin terms of energy, minerals, water and even in growing enough food for our burgeoningpopulation. How are we going to live with that?It’s not going to be financiers and politicianssolving this, it will be scientists and engineers.

What frustrates you?The short-termism that one sees in the fundingof science frustrates me. My team and I havebeen hugely fortunate and had strong backingfrom EPSRC for 40-odd years. I know how hard that is when the technology cycle can be as long as 50 years, while the political cycle onlylasts five years.

A frustrating phenomenon that’s emerged in recent years is the increasing use of hype inscience. While I strongly believe we technologistsneed to tell our story better to the public whopay our salaries, we must strike a balance andmaintain our credibility.

Who do you most admire?It’s not one individual or group of individuals,it’s innovation and excellence wherever we findit. I have huge admiration for excellence and Idon’t care if it’s someone who can plaster a wallimmaculately or someone who can come up with a unified theory of everything.

Who or what has been your greatestinfluence?Great scientists and engineers of the past whocombined their work with wealth creation,people like Benjamin Franklin, Marconi and Bell.It’s not an easy thing to do because the two fieldshave very different cultures, as I have found out.These great people combined rigorous sciencewith the creation of real products that made adifference to the world.

What are your main interests outsidescience?I love to travel. The place that fascinates memost is the Far East. It’s full of fantastic culturaldifferences – people, architecture and cuisine.

I also love cooking because of thecombination of the artistic with technology. It’s all about heat control!

And I’m a petrol head. I love motorcycles andfast cars. I rebuild Harleys and things like that.

In another life what would you be?An entrepreneurial chef. I love the creativity andartistry combined with the application of scienceand engineering. The foremost practitioner ofthat is Heston Blumenthal and he is my hero.He’s creative and innovative but grounded insolid engineering.

The challenge is whatcomes next and how dowe solve the forthcomingbandwidth bottlenecks.Professor David Payne

David PayneEPSRC Pioneer

Connecting business with pioneering research

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