...a series of lectures showcasing some of the commercial relevance of science emerging from the partners in the Rainbow Seed Fund.
This is an excellent opportunity for those with an interest in new technology business to gain awareness of exciting new potential. The first in the series of four lectures will take place at the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire on Tuesday 28 October with the theme of:
"New science for improved security"
Future lectures are scheduled for November 2003, March and July 2004, and will address themes chosen from:
- Diagnostic techniques for health care application
- Advances in instrumentation
- New uses of materials
This lecture series is sponsored by Manches solicitors. Business and technology law firm Manches have offices in Oxford and London. The firm provides the full range of legal services including corporate finance, intellectual property, technology and media, property, commercial litigation and employment law.
Follow every Rainbow...
Huge amounts of money are spent each year on research and development projects but the commercial potential can be overlooked. Funding is available for research but not for taking the results to market for commercial use.
The Rainbow Seed Fund, launched in May 2002, provides seed capital investment to help commercialise the outcomes of scientific research undertaken by the research councils and Government agencies.
These organisations spend more than £700 million each year on research, representing a significant part of the publicly funded scientific research effort in the UK. The world leading research carried out at these institutions has direct relevance to the problems of modern life. However, in some areas of the business world there is limited awareness of it, leading to reduced private funding. The Rainbow Showcase intends to address this gap by hosting a lecture series to highlight scientific research to venture capitalists, technology transfer companies and business angels.
Programme for 28 October 2003
"New science for improved security"
Chair: Peter Angel, Senior Partner, Manches Solicitors
5.30pm - Arrival
6.00pm - Introduction
Peter Angel, Manches Solicitors
6.20pm - Applying terahertz imaging to personnel security screening
Dr Chris Mann, CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
6.40pm - Large-format, energy-resolved photon-counting imaging with superconducting detectors.
Dr Damian Audley, PPARC UK Astronomy Technology Centre
7.00pm - X-ray diffraction and other techniques to detect explosives and drugs
James Leggett, Dstl Detection Group
7.20pm - Questions
7.30pm - Buffet and networking opportunity
Speakers biographies
Dr Chris Mann is a principle scientist at CCLRC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Chris has more than 15 years experience in millimetre wave, terahertz (THz) technology and other detection systems. He was CCLRC's technical project manager on the ESA StarTiger project and was responsible for the design, fabrication, and testing of the world's first 2.5 THz wave guide mixer. He has previously lead a number of other high profile space millimetre wave detection projects and several key astronomical mixer programmes. His technical achievements include pioneering wave guide micro-machining techniques to realise completely integrated sub-millimetre-wave detection systems for compact space imaging applications.
Dr Damian Audley received his BSc and MSc in Experimental Physics from University College Cork, Ireland. Damian carried out his doctoral research at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, developing kinetic inductance detectors for X-ray astronomy and investigating accretion processes in high-mass X-ray binaries. He remained at Goddard as a calibration scientist on the X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) project, an array of X-ray calorimeters that were flown on the Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-E. When the XRS instrument was moved to Japan for integration with the satellite, he took up a position at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science near Tokyo. Damian currently works at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, as SCUBA-2 instrument scientist. SCUBA-2 is a large-format submillimetre camera for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
James Leggett is a research scientist in the X-ray group at Dstl's Fort Halstead. After graduating in physics at Aberystwyth he took a year off to travel in Canada. He then undertook an MSc in Radiation and Environmental Protection at Surrey University, which included project work at BNFL Berkeley Labs on radiation monitoring equipment. James joined Dstl (or DERA as it then was) four years ago and has worked on security-related projects for the Ministry of Defence, Department for Transport, HM Customs and Excise and other Government departments.
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