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A Queen's postgraduate student from Lisburn has won an award highlighting the importance of physics to business and innovation. John McClure, from the Centre for Nanostructured Media in the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's, beat off competition from across Ireland to win the Rosse Medal at the Institute of Physics in Ireland's annual spring conference. A PhD student sponsored by Seagate Technology in Springtown, County Londonderry, John works with nanoscale magnetoelectric oxides materials. John said: "I am working with materials that can change their magnetic properties with the application of an electrical voltage and vice versa. Materials with this ‘magnetoelectric' effect are rare, so my research has involved devising a material that will produce this effect. "Such nanoscale magnetoelectric materials, where a nanometre is equal to one billionth of a metre, have massive potential applications in data storage and sensors etc. It is a fast moving area which is receiving increasing attention from both materials scientists and physicists and I know I will have an exciting future in this field." John's supervisor, Professor Robert Bowman of Queen's said: "John's work to date has been in a very exciting and technologically important area. He was able to communicate this in a clear and precise way which impressed the judging panel and I am delighted to see his work recognised." The medal was presented to John by Dr Herman Hauser, an entrepreneur and investor responsible for the growth of companies such as ARM and Cambridge Silicon Radio and founder of Acorn Computers. |
