We are delighted to share the news that Professor Rachel Oliver FREng was announced as one of four innovative engineers to be awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies on 1st December 2022.  Rachel's proposal focuses on porous GaN: an emerging materials platform for electronics and optoelectronics.  She aims to engineer new properties in compound semiconductor materials by creating porous structures, thus enabling new device concepts. Porosity enhances efficiency in current technologies, such as the light emitting diodes (LEDs) at the heart of energy-efficient lightbulbs, and could open up new opportunities for compound semiconductors in quantum technologies, sensing, displays, healthcare and beyond.

Funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the RAEng’s Chair in Emerging Technologies scheme aims to identify global research visionaries and provide them with long-term support. Each £2,500,000 award covers employment and research costs, enabling each researcher to focus on advancing their technology to application in a strategic manner over a period of up to 10 years.