Dr Ian MacLaren he/they

I have been working with Electron Microscopy and related techniques since I started my PhD in 1991 and have since used this on a diverse range of different materials and structures, from metals to ceramics, thin films to pieces of Martian meteorites, and biomedical implants to single photon sensors. In recent years, we have been developing computational imaging techniques using a new generation of direct electron imaging detectors. Though I am a physicist by background, I spend most of my time collaborating with people well beyond that subject area, as you can see from the topics mentioned above.

In a CDT, I’d love to continue in that vein and, for instance, work on development of a quantum sensor or processing device, with us providing the understanding of what exactly it is that has been created, both structurally and chemically, to help explain how the fabrication has worked in practice, and why the device properties are as they are. Or that could be working on the development of new battery materials with chemists, or understanding new aerospace alloys and how to process or join them with engineers, or how asteroids brought the essential elements and molecules needed to this earth as it was developing. I have graduated plenty of students in my 20 years at Glasgow and am always looking to develop the student into their own strengths, even if that means that our initial ideas were not perfect and the project progresses differently to initially envisaged. Former students work in a range of functions in several countries, including representing a major microscope manufacturer, teaching at a university, and working for a household name in semiconductors, among others.

I have been a supporter of EDI ever since I moved from a very male-dominated department at one university to a much more gender-balanced team in a different university and finding the workplace culture much better. I have been an active champion since being a founder-member of our EDI committee in our School about 15 years ago. As such, I have contributed to many certifications for the School and personally led the introduction of a Code of Conduct for our teaching laboratories some years ago and led the update in the last year (having sadly seen some very good reasons why we need a code).