University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

Professor Haitao Ye (Coordinator of the project), who is Professor in Materials Engineering and Head of Thin Film and Electronic Device Lab at University of Leicester with 20 years’ academic and industrial experience of research and development in diamond based nanomaterials for photonics, aerospace, energy and biomedical application. He is a winner of multiple EPSRC, EU and Industrial research grants as principal and co-investigator. He has published over 100 refereed international journal and conference papers in for example Applied Physics Letters, Scientific Reports, Carbon, ACS–Applied Materials Interfaces and Biomaterials. Among a number of recent major high impact academic achievements by Dr Ye, of particular relevance is the demonstration of nanodiamond particle research.  The work on ‘Nanodiamond for Cold Water Cleaning’ demonstrated for the first time that surface functionalised nanodiamond particles could improve the efficiency of removal of lipids, highlighting the potential of this process to make global energy savings and domestic washing machines much more efficient; this work has opened up a new research direction on nanoparticles additives research. The work has attracted a great deal of media attention and was highlighted by EPSRC.

Univeristy of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Professor Shuang Zhang received BS in Physics from Jilin University, China, MS.  in Physics from Northeastern University (USA) and Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico. From December 2005 to August 2006, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and from August 2006 to March 2010, he was first a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and later an Assistant Research Engineer at the University of California Berkeley. In March 2010, he took the position of Reader in the School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, and was promoted to professor in March, 2013. Professor Zhang is the recipient of IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics) Young Scientist Prize in Optics, the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2016. He was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 2016. Professor Zhang's work on macroscopic invisibility cloaking of visible light was selected as "top 10 breakthroughs for 2010" by Physics World, "top 100 stories in 2011" by Discover Magazine, and received numerous media coverage including BBC News, Telegraph, Channel 4, ITV, Guardian, Fox News, USA Today, MSNBC.

Teer Coatings Ltd, Droitwich, United Kingdom

Dr Hailin Sun is Head of R&D Technology Centre, Teer Coatings Ltd (TCL), Miba Coating Group, UK.  TCL is a specialist manufacturer of PVD (Magnetron Sputtering) based coating machines, but also offers a ranges of sub-contract PVD coatings in the world. Its customer base is global, with 150 coating machines operating in industrial and academic environments. Dr Hailin Sun has been working for the TCL for 15 years, He has 33 years experience in the material science and surface engineering research areas, especially in the PVD and PACVD coating industries and their equipment. 

ICN2, Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Nikolaos Kehagias is in charge of the flexible nanofabrication platform of ICN2. The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) is a research centre with currently about 200 people among researchers, technical support and administration. The research covers new material properties resulting from their aggregation at the nanometric scale; the development of methods for nanofabrication, growth, analysis, characterisation and manipulation of aggregates and structures of nanometric dimension for nanoelectronics, spintronics, nanophotonics and nanophononics. ICN2 was awarded the coveted label of Excelencia Severo Ochoa by the Spanish Government, acknowledging its research excellence, the first in Spain in Nanoscience. The institute is the home of several ERC award holders and has an active technology transfer department. Of particular relevance to this proposal is his expertise on the novel nano-manufacturing (roll to roll nanoimprint lithography and nano-injection moulding) methods based on imprint lithography techniques for photonic crystal device applications. 

Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland

Dr Tomasz Ochalski who is a senior researcher at Cork Institute of Technology, a premier technical university in Ireland. He is in charge of the semiconductor material optical characterisation laboratory and this new facility includes state-of-the-art FTIR and Raman systems, a time-resolved photoluminescence set-up and a suite of other characterisation equipment.  Dr Ochalski is an expert in optical characterization of materials using modulation spectroscopy, pump-probe or time-resolved photoluminescence. He has also a detailed understanding on the physical processes in semiconductor materials including quantum well and quantum dot semiconductor nanostructures.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, United States

Dr. Ilia N. Ivanov is a research scientist at the Centre for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Distinguished Battelle Inventor, 18+ patents issued and pending. He will assist with preparation of user proposals to access CNMS capabilities through the User research program as well as will led environmental testing of nanomaterials and nanostructures. Dr. Ivanov led several research projects funded by the Department of Energy, (USA) on investigation on effects of incorporation of carbon nanomaterials in the structure of flexible light emitting diodes and photovoltaic devices. Dr. Ivanov leads research directions on meso-nanoscale characterization of thin films using specially designed environmental chambers, including in-situ chambers for neutron, XRD for structure-functional tests. The Centre has high impact journal publications including Nature communications, Nano letters, Nanoscale, Carbon. Of particular relevance to this proposal is his expertise on the unique in-situ and environmental characterisation facilities, which could provide in-depth understanding on the materials developed and devices fabricated.

University of Science & Technology Beijing, Beijing, China

Prof Chengming Li is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Deputy Director of the Carbon Based Materials and Functional Films Laboratory at University of Science & Technology Beijing (USTB). USTB is renowned for its study of materials science and the subject of materials science and engineering ranks among the top-three in China. It is the first group to study diamond in China with 30 years history. His team has expertise on the preparation and functional application of high quality diamond films and the first report on the RF performance of diamond based MESFETs in China came from this lab. More than 100 diamond papers have been published and more than 20 relevant patents have been successfully filed. 

Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China

Prof. Xiaojun Hu, who is deputy Dean of College of Materials Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT), China. ZJUT is one of the top industrial universities in China and the second largest university in Zhejiang Province. Her expertise focuses on the preparation, doping, electrical properties and devices, color center photoluminescent properties, and electrochemical properties of nanocrystalline diamond films. She also interests in depositing diamond films on metal and first principle calculation of diamond structure and performance. She has led 11 research and innovation projects from National Science Foundation and Ministry of Science and Technology of China and has won about ¥5M RMB of National funding over the last 7 years. More than 50 papers related to diamond films have been published in for example Appl. Phys. Lett., Carbon, J. Mater. Chem. C, J. Appl. Phys. etc journals. She has authorized 5 relevant patents. Her team members including the lecturers, postdoctoral fellows and PhD students will be on secondment to EU partners for training and knowledge transfer activities.