WARWICK NOMINATOR: DR MARK NEWTON, PHYSICS DEPARTMENT

Professor James Hyde, National Biomedical EPR Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA

The new Millburn House Magnetic Resonance Centre, is home to a comprehensive coverage of Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy research unrivalled within a single UK laboratory, with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) covering the range 200 to 700 MHz and EPR to 94 GHz. New pulsed EPR spectrometers and a wide bore 850 MHz NMR spectrometer arrive in 2008/9. Research teams in Physics (Smith, Brown, Dupree, Newton) and Chemistry (Sadler, Blindauer, Dixon, Challis) at Warwick lead a diverse variety of projects encompassing magnetic resonance instrumentation development, advancement of multinuclear solid-state NMR methodology and the application of magnetic resonance to materials science, chemistry, the life sciences and physics. These studies are carried out within the centre and in collaboration with national and international academic and industrial partners.

The reach and applicability of EPR as analytical tool in many areas of physics, chemistry and biomedical research has improved dramatically over the last 10 years, transforming what was a somewhat stagnant research field into one which is dynamic and dramatically expanding. The new infrastructure at Warwick (including a £650K multi-technique pulsed EPR spectrometer funded in the AWM Advance Materials Science City initiative) offers previously unimagined sensitivity and flexibility. In addition to developing new techniques and applications part of the Centre's mission is to ensure that potential as well as established users make full use of the facilities. To support this goal the IAS has awarded a two week IAS Advanced Fellowship for Professor James S (Jim) Hyde.

Professor Hyde established the US National Biomedical Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (NB-EPR) Centre in 1975, with the broad aim of developing new technologies and techniques for EPR and promoting collaborative research and user training. NB-EPR is currently supported until 2013. Hyde has been at the forefront of the development of EPR instrumentation and new applications of EPR for over 40 years. His contributions have driven the recent renaissance and been recognised by numerous awards including the Gold Medal of the International EPR Society, the Gold Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and the Zavoisky award; this is perhaps unsurprising since he has authored more than 350 papers (h-factor approaches 50), holds 33 U.S. patents and has supervised 17 PhD students.

Professor Hyde's participation in the Millburn House Magnetic Resonance Conference will promote the international academic profile of this Warwick meeting. Hyde has established collaborations with Newton, Smith and Dupree; the Fellowship presents the opportunity to strengthen these links but also broaden the collaboration with other teams at Warwick (see schedule) and establish sustainable research links with the US NB-EPR Centre.  Hyde is an effective and possibly unique teacher who combines expertise in microwave and radio-frequency technology with an in-depth understanding solid state physics and biophysics. His approach is to identify the problem and design the optimum experimental approach for its solution; this wealth of knowledge will be shared with postgraduate research students and early career postdoctoral scholars.  See the IAS Calendar for details of events during Professor Hyde's visit.