Mark Welland
Born (1955-10-18) 18 October 1955 (age 68)
Alma mater
SpouseEsme Lynora Otun
ChildrenFour
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisA study of grain boundaries in copper and copper-bismuth alloy (1984)
39th Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
In office
1 October 2016 – 1 October 2023
Preceded byDame Jean Thomas
Succeeded bySir John Benger
Websiteeng.cam.ac.uk/profiles/mew10

Sir Mark Edward Welland, FRS, FREng (born 18 October 1955) is a British physicist who is a professor of nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge and head of the Nanoscience Centre. He has been a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, since 1986 and started his career in nanotechnology at IBM Research, where he was part of the team that developed one of the first scanning tunnelling microscopes.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] He was served as the Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge and took up office from 2016 to 2023.[10]

Early life and education

Welland was born on 18 October 1955.[11] He completed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in physics from the University of Leeds in 1979 and Master of Science[12] and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in physics from the University of Bristol in 1984 for research on grain boundaries.[13][14]

Career

Welland moved to Cambridge in 1987 and set up the first tunnelling microscopy group in the UK in collaboration with John Pethica. Currently at the Nanoscience Centre at the University of Cambridge researches into a number of aspects of nanotechnology ranging from sensors for medical applications to understanding and controlling the properties of nanoscale structures and devices.

In a recent award by the UK Research Councils, Welland has been made Director of an Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in nanotechnology that, along with a purpose-built facility, represents an investment of $28 million for nanotechnology research at Cambridge. Until 2008, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology, established in 1990, and, along with many other contributions at an international level, co-chairs the recently established Co-operative Research Initiative in Nanotechnology (CORINT) between the UK and Japan with Hiroyuki Sakaki of the University of Tokyo. He is also a Member of Council of the Royal United Services Institute.

Welland is also on the advisory board of Seraphima Ventures – a venture capital firm focusing mainly on nanotechnology startup companies.

In April 2008 he was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) to the Ministry of Defence.[15]

Welland's research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).[16]

In 2016 he was appointed Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge,[17] where he took office in September 2016.

Personal life

Welland is married to Esme Lynora Otun. Together they have four children: two sons and two daughters.[11]

Awards and honours

Welland was knighted in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.[18][19] In 2002, his contributions to nanotechnology research were recognised through his election to Fellowships of the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering.[20] His nomination for the Royal Society reads:

Mark Welland is a world leader in nanotechnology and scanned probe microscopy. His achievements combine the development of new experimental tools for nanoscale characterisation with the modelling of nano-scale properties, and an interdisciplinary approach to practical applications. His contributions include determining the mechanical properties of single molecules, and of molecular layers and polymer films at the nanometre scale; local electronic properties of semiconductors, insulators and metallic nanowires; optical property determination with atomic resolution; size and shape effects in sub-micron magnetic structures; sensors for chemical and biochemical recognition, and synthesis of new materials by direct nano-fabrication. His seminal contributions are internationally recognised, he leads an IRC, and he continues to be a fertile originator of new nano-scale science and technology.[21]

In 2014, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Bristol.

References

  1. ^ Porter, A. E.; Gass, M.; Muller, K.; Skepper, J. N.; Midgley, P. A.; Welland, M. (2007). "Direct imaging of single-walled carbon nanotubes in cells". Nature Nanotechnology. 2 (11): 713–7. Bibcode:2007NatNa...2..713P. doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.347. PMID 18654411.
  2. ^ Knowles, T. P.; Fitzpatrick, A. W.; Meehan, S.; Mott, H. R.; Vendruscolo, M.; Dobson, C. M.; Welland, M. E. (2007). "Role of Intermolecular Forces in Defining Material Properties of Protein Nanofibrils". Science. 318 (5858): 1900–3. Bibcode:2007Sci...318.1900K. doi:10.1126/science.1150057. PMID 18096801. S2CID 32892463.
  3. ^ Smith, J. F.; Knowles, T. P. J.; Dobson, C. M.; MacPhee, C. E.; Welland, M. E. (2006). "Characterization of the nanoscale properties of individual amyloid fibrils". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (43): 15806–11. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10315806S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0604035103. PMC 1635084. PMID 17038504.
  4. ^ Shu, W.; Liu, D.; Watari, M.; Riener, C. K.; Strunz, T.; Welland, M. E.; Balasubramanian, S.; McKendry, R. A. (2005). "DNA Molecular Motor Driven Micromechanical Cantilever Arrays". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 127 (48): 17054–60. doi:10.1021/ja0554514. PMID 16316252.
  5. ^ Knowles, T. P.; Waudby, C. A.; Devlin, G. L.; Cohen, S. I.; Aguzzi, A; Vendruscolo, M; Terentjev, E. M.; Welland, M. E.; Dobson, C. M. (2009). "An analytical solution to the kinetics of breakable filament assembly". Science. 326 (5959): 1533–7. Bibcode:2009Sci...326.1533K. doi:10.1126/science.1178250. PMID 20007899. S2CID 6267152.
  6. ^ Mark Welland's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  7. ^ Cowburn, R. P.; Koltsov, D. K.; Adeyeye, A. O.; Welland, M. E. (1999). "Single-Domain Circular Nanomagnets". Physical Review Letters. 83 (5): 1042. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..83.1042C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.1042.
  8. ^ Cowburn, R. P. (2000). "Room Temperature Magnetic Quantum Cellular Automata". Science. 287 (5457): 1466–1468. Bibcode:2000Sci...287.1466C. doi:10.1126/science.287.5457.1466. PMID 10688790.
  9. ^ Barnes, J. R.; Stephenson, R. J.; Welland, M. E.; Gerber, C.; Gimzewski, J. K. (1994). "Photothermal spectroscopy with femtojoule sensitivity using a micromechanical device". Nature. 372 (6501): 79. Bibcode:1994Natur.372...79B. doi:10.1038/372079a0. S2CID 4326428.
  10. ^ "The next Master of St Catharine's | St Catharine's College, Cambridge".
  11. ^ a b "WELLAND, Sir Mark (Edward)". Who's Who. Vol. 2014 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  12. ^ Welland, Mark Edward (1979). An investigation into the properties of migrating grain boundaries using Micro-Mossel X-ray diffraction (MSc thesis). University of Bristol.
  13. ^ Welland, Mark Edward (1984). A study of grain boundaries in copper and copper-bismuth alloy (PhD thesis). University of Bristol.
  14. ^ Professor Mark Welland
  15. ^ New Chief Scientific Adviser at the MOD, MoD Press Release, 3 April 2008.
  16. ^ UK Government grants awarded to Mark Welland, via Research Councils UK
  17. ^ rb675. "The next Master of St Catharine's". St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Retrieved 22 February 2016.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "No. 59808". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2011. p. 2.
  19. ^ "Queen's birthday honours list: Knights". The Guardian. London. 11 June 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  20. ^ "List of Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering".
  21. ^ "EC/2002/41: Welland, Mark Edward". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019.
Academic offices Preceded byDame Jean Thomas Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge 2016–2023 Succeeded bySir John Benger
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