Group alumni

📚 A list of group theses is given here.

• Dr Daniel A. Hunter passed his PhD in August 2023.
• Former research students Catherine G. Brasser, Christopher G. Bryce, and Reece Jones.
• Thomas McGrory retired as our technician in July 2023
• Dr Prince Khatri moved to the National Physical Laboratory in June 2023.
• Dr Naresh Kumar left the group in September 2022 to take up a lectureship position at Cardiff University. Naresh completed his PhD on Electron channelling contrast imaging of nitride semiconductor thin films in 2012, before working with us as a post-doc for 10 years.
• Dr Ben Hourahine moved to the Department of Physics’s Computational Nonlinear & Quantum Optics Group in June 2022. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Ben in his new group.
• Dr Aeshah M. A. Alasmari successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis “Characterisation of III-nitrides in the scanning electron microscope” in May 2021.
• Dr Gergely Ferenczi is now working at the University of Glasgow.
• Dr Lucia Spasevski left in October 2020 to start her new job at Quorum Technologies Ltd, before moving to Oxford Instruments. She successfullly defended her thesis on “Correlating X-ray microanalysis and cathodoluminescence data from III-nitride semiconductors” in September 2021.
• Dr James Denholm finished his Ph.D. on “Freezing in Kinetic Ferromagnets” in July 2020. He is now a post-doc at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, working with a spin-out company on the use of mathematical image analysis techniques for the diagnosis of Coeliac disease.
• Dr B. Matat Jablon successfully defended her Ph.D.thesis “Understanding crystallographic defects in hard materials: A study in ECCI and EBSD” in July 2020, and is now working for Oxford Instruments in Paris.
• Professor Kevin P. O’Donnell, who started the SSD research group in 1987, retired in 2020.
• Dr Michael J. Wallace obtained his Ph.D. with an “Optoelectronic study of InGaN/GaN LEDs” in 2016, and later returned for a short post-doc stint before going to work for H.M. Revenue and Customs.
• Dr Gunnar Kusch completed his Ph.D. on “Characterization of low conductivity wide band gap semiconductors” in 2016, and continued working here as a post-doc until 2019. He is now working at the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride.
• Dr Elena Pascal submitted her Ph.D. thesis on “Dynamical models for novel diffraction techniques in SEM” in 2019, and is now working with Marc De Graef at Carnegie Mellon University.
• Ekaterina Skidchenko graduated with an M.Phil. in 2017, with a thesis entitled “Photoluminescence study of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ and Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ used for thin film solar cells“. She is now working at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow.
• Dr Akhilesh Singh spent a productive year and a half working with us on the hysteretic photochromic switching of Eu-doped GaN:Mg. He left the Group in 2017 and to become a Senior Research Associateship (Scientists Pool) in the National Physical Laboratory of India, New Delhi. He is now Assistant Professor at Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan.
• Dr Stefano Vespucci finished his Ph.D. on “Development of an energy filtering direct electron detector for diffraction studies in the SEM” in 2018. After a post-doc position in the Imaging Physics Laboratory at the University of Houston, he is now working on electron microscope detector development at Thermo Fisher in Eindhoven.
• Dr Elaine Taylor-Shaw completed her Ph.D. on “Composition and luminescence studies of InGaN and InAlN alloys” in 2015, and continued to work in the group as a post-doc until 2016. She is now working at Murgitroyd as a trainee patent attorney.
• Martin Shaw is finishing writing his Ph.D. thesis and now training in patent law.
• Former technician David Clark has moved to the Isle of Tiree.
• Dr Fathi Elfituri finished his Ph.D. on “Computational investigation of InGaN alloys over the full composition range” in 2013.
• Dr Simon Kraeusel completed his Ph.D. in 2013 and is designing scientific software in Munich. Download his thesis, “Native defects in the group III nitrides“.
• Dr Franziska Luckert finished her Ph.D. in 2012 and is now working in patent law. Download her thesis, “Optical properties of the chalcopyrite semiconductors CuInSe₂, CuInS₂ and CuGaSe₂“.
• Dr Lethy Krishnan Jagadamma completed her Ph.D. on “Characterisation of nanostructured light emitters” in 2012. After working as a post-doc at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, is now at the University of St Andrews.
• Dr Lay-Theng Tan defended her thesis in 2009 and is now working at Republic Polytechnic, Singapore. Download her thesis, “Nanometric characterisation of III-nitride semiconductors“.
• Dr Nils Benedict Braur carried out a Ph.D. at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, and now works for LS Instruments in Fribourg, Switzerland.
• Dr Katarzyna Bejtka completed her Ph.D. in 2008 on “GaN-based microcavities : fabrication, characterisation and development“. She is now a senior post-doc at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa.
• Dr Michael Wang Ke finished his Ph.D. in 2008, with a thesis entitled “Investigation of the optical properties of rare earth doped and novel nitride semiconductors“. After working with Professor Yasushi Nanishi in Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, he is now back in China at Nanjing University.
• Dr Emilio Nogales Díaz is now Associate Professor in the Physics of Electronic Materials Group at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
• Dr Sergi Hernández Márquez is now Associate Professor at the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, where he works in the Micro and Nanotechnology and Nanoscopies for Electronic and Electrophotonic Devices group.
• Dr Debbie Amabile obtained her Ph.D. in 2006, with an “Investigation of the relationship between composition and luminescence properties of novel nitride based semiconductors“. She is now a statistician for the Scottish Government.
• Dr Vyacheslav Kachkanov completed his Ph.D. in 2006 on “Structural properties of luminescent nitride semiconductors” before moving to the Diamond Light Source. Slava is now working as a diagnostics physicist for the fusion company Tokamak Energy Ltd in Abingdon.
• Dr Francis Sweeney finished his Ph.D. on “Characterisation of nitride thin films by electron backscattered diffraction correlated with cathodoluminescence spectroscopy and imaging” in 2005. After stints at the Universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, he is now at Sheffield Hallam University.
• Dr Sérgio M. de Sousa Pereira was awarded his Ph.D. in 2005 jointly with the Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, where he is now Principal Researcher in CICECO and the Department of Physics. Download his thesis (in English) “Estudo de propriedades estruturais e ópticas de multicamadas epitaxiais emissoras de luz baseadas em InGaN/GaN” (“Structural and optical characterization of light emitting InGaN/GaN epitaxial layers”).
• Dr Stéphane Dalmasso now works in the multidisciplinary LCP–A2MC laboratory at the Université de Lorraine, Metz, France.
• Dr Raúl Pecharromán-Gallego finished his Ph.D. on “Investigations of the luminescence of GaN and InGaN/GaN quantum wells” in 2004.
• Dr Isabel Fernández-Torrente completed her M.Phil. on “MBE-grown InGaN epilayers” in 2003, before going on to obtain a Ph.D. on “Local spectroscopy of bi-molecular self-assemblies” from Freie Universität Berlin. Download her Masters thesis and her Ph.D. thesis (from FU-Berlin).
• Chris Lewis completed his M.Res. on “Compositional analysis of dilute nitride semiconductor structures” in 2002, and is now a Partnership Development Leader at the University’s Advanced Forming Research Centre
• Dr Madeleine E. White graduated with a Ph.D. in 2002 with the thesis “Investigation of the optical properties, composition and logical structure of InGaN“, before going to work for National Semiconductor UK. Download her thesis here.
• Dr Sacha K. Manson-Smith completed his Ph.D. in 2000, with a thesis entitled “Investigation into scanning tunnelling luminescence microscopy“.
• Dr Fiona J. McGow completed her Ph.D. on “Optical properties of strained layer semiconductor structures” in 1999.
• Dr Abdullahi Mohammed was awarded his Ph.D. in 1999 with a thesis entitled “Optical and structural characterisation of low dimensional structures using electron beam excitation systems“.
• Dr Kaumba G. Chinyama completed his Ph.D. in 1999 with a thesis focusing on “Morphological and photoluminescence studies of ultrathin CdSe in ZnSe well structures“.
• Paul G. Middleton went to work for Barclays in the City of London.
• Dr Ian V. Bradley is a Senior Process Engineer at Renishaw.
• Professor Darren M. Bagnall is now Head of the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
• Dr Mark Davison is now a lecturer in the School of Engineering and Computing at the University of the West of Scotland.
• Dr Jonathan P. Creasey obtained his Ph.D. in 1997 with “Photoluminescence studies of space-charge effects in II-VI type II strained layer superlattices“, and went to work for Applied Scintillation Technologies (now Scintacor).
• Dr Yang Fang was awarded his Ph.D. in 1992 with the thesis title “Wide bandgap II-VI quantum wells : optical characterisation and the role of disorder“.
• Professor Peter J. Parbrook completed his Ph.D. on “The growth by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy and charactisation of wide-bangap II-VI epilayers and superlattices” in 1991 and now holds a chair jointly at University College Cork and the Tyndall National Institute, Republic of Ireland.
• Dr Chen Xiaoyuan finished his Ph.D. on “Photoluminescence studies of II-VI compound strained layer superlattices” in 1991, and later worked in the Nanoengineering group at MIT. He is now at the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.