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Overview
Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor in the Department of Physics+44 (0) 191 33 43589
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing+44 (0) 191 33 43589

Biography

Following my undergraduate degree in Oxford and PhD at Southampton I worked for Photon Control an Opto-Mechanical company based in Cambridge designing the world’s first commercial diode pumped Nd:YAG laser. I then spent seven years at Keeler Ltd researching and designing ophthalmic instrumentation including a diode laser for retinal photocoagulation. In 1996 I moved to the newly founded Institute of Photonics at Strathclyde University to form, and lead, the applications team. While there I was one of the founders of the Centre for Biophotonics and the theme leader for the Physics and Life Sciences theme within SUPA (the Scottish Physics Alliance). I moved to Durham in January 2009 as part of the Biophysical Sciences initiative and from August 2011 I became Director of the BSI. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 2017.

New Book Publication

I have recently written a book, A Practical Guide to Optical Microscopy, which looks at all the current methods available to microscopists. It outlines the basic physics principles, provides guidelines on the practical use of microscopes and which method is best suited to a specific task. The book can be understood without a detailed knowledge of optics and is aimed at the general user of optical microscopy.

Research Interests

My research centres on the application and development of advanced photonics and optical technology to challenges within the life sciences. A strong focus of this has been in the application of adaptive optics, originally developed for astronomy, to deep optical sectioning microscopy, both confocal and multiphoton. The optical methods developed have been applied in a wide range of samples from brain through to novel methods of optically detecting early dental decay. Details can be found under the CFAI web pages. All of my research work is strongly multi-disciplinary and collaborative and is thus closely linked with the Biophysical Sciences Institute .

We have developed novel methods of imaging beating Zebrafish hearts using Single Plane Illumination microscopy supported by the British Heart Foundation (linked to Edinburgh University) and the EPSRC and some of the details can be found in a short podcast (Beating Hearts). More recently we have perfected the use of KillerRed (a genetically encoded fluorescent marker which when illuminated causes local cell death) in Zebrafish in vivo for the first time. This work entailed the use of opto-genetics and adaptive optics to ensure accurate targetting.

In clinical research I am part of the Proteus team led by Edinburgh University. We are devleoping novel technology to image inside the living human lung using flourescent lifetime imaging. My team are looking to apply the technology in new areas including for oral applications. In a separate project with a company NirVisio we are developing novel methods of dental caries detection using near infrared light.

Esteem Indicators

  • 2019: Deputy Editor Optics Express:
  • 2019: Chair EPSRC Strategic Advisory Team in Healthcare:
  • 2019: External Examiner Manchester University:
  • 2018: UKRI Fellowship Panel Member:
  • 2017: NIH and DFG International Grant Panel Member (2017-):
  • 2017: Elected Fellow Optical Society of America:
  • 2016: Jeremiah Horrocks Public Lecture:
  • 2016: External Examiner University of Central Lancashire (2016-19):
  • 2013: External Examiner Cardiff University (2013-16): Biophotonics Masters Course
  • 2013: Associate Editor Optics Express (2013-2018): Editor for the highest ranked Optics Journal
  • 2012: International Conference Organising Committee: I am on the international organising committees for several conferences including Photonics North and Photonics West (SPIE BIOS), Society of Experimental Biology and Photoptics
  • 2010: Editor Biosensors and Bioelectronics (2010-2017): Highest ranked International Journal on Biosensors

Publications

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

Journal Article

Supervision students