The Dean
Professor Roger Eccleston became Dean of the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University in October 2009.
Roger obtained a BSc in Applied Science from Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1988 and a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics from Warwick University in 1991. Following a short period of postdoctoral research on high temperature superconductivity, he joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1992, as an instrument scientist at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron Facility. ISIS is a world-leading facility providing high intensity, pulsed beams of neutrons and muons which are used by a large community of visiting scientists to study the structure and dynamics of materials.
Roger was variously head of the Excitations Group, responsible for the operation and development of a suite of spectrometers, and head of the Science and Instrumentation Division which operated a number of the ISIS instruments and developed and supported the detector, data acquisition and computing systems. During this period Roger was also involved in a number of large instrument and facility development projects including the MERLIN chopper spectrometer at ISIS, the ISIS Second Target Station and the European Spallation Source.
In 2004 he became Director of the Materials and Engineering Research Institute (MERI) and Professor of Materials Physics at Sheffield Hallam University. MERI is a multi-disciplinary research institute covering a broad range of topics from semiconductors to concrete and from theoretical modeling to industrial applied coatings, specialising in research that has a high commercial relevance.
In 2007 Roger became Director of Technology in the Science and Technology Facilities Council. In that capacity, Roger led STFC's Technology Department which provides engineering and technology developments and support to some of the UK's major national and international scientific facilities and programmes including the Large Hadron Collider, at CERN, ground and space-based astronomy programmes and particle accelerator developments.
Roger's research focuses on the study of model magnetic systems, studying the spin dynamics of materials that have relatively simple magnetic interactions which can be used to test theoretical models. This work was carried out in collaboration with colleagues in the UK, Europe, Japan, Russia and the US. He has also deployed scattering techniques to study magnetic structures and materials properties, and been involved in the development and implementation of novel instrumentation. Roger was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2007.
Roger is committed to developing the School of Science and Technology as one of the most exciting places in the UK for teaching, learning and research in science and technology. The School is a vibrant interdisciplinary institution in which excellent, innovative teaching and internationally leading research are strongly allied to produce an inspiring environment in which students can follow their interests and realise their potential through developing skills and knowledge which are relevant to the world of work. Research programmes in all of the School's core disciplines are well-regarded internationally and deliver societal and economic impact.
