Distinguished Professor awarded prestigious fellowship

A Distinguished Professor at Nottingham Trent University has been awarded a prestigious fellowship, joining a select group of the world’s most eminent scientists.

Distinguished Professor Paul Evans has been appointed as a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow

Professor Paul Evans, based in the university’s School of Science and Technology, has been appointed as a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow in recognition of his work into material specific 3D X-ray imaging for security and medical scanners.

The award was launched this year and is funded jointly by the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation.

It provides universities with additional support to enable them to attract and retain UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.

Professor Evans is developing a revolutionary X-ray scanner which will use scattered X-ray signals to identify the material of any suspicious objects in milliseconds, via their unique signatures or chemical 'fingerprint’.

The new technology will enable cost-effective solutions in overcoming major terrorist threats to air travel by quickly identifying weapons, explosives and contraband drugs.

Scanners are currently able to provide an image of an object and give a broad material category, but cannot identify specific substances in this way.

This can lead to numerous false alarms and a need for further investigation by hand, which slows down security checks.

The work by Professor Evans would also provide a new medical scanner to assess bone mineral quality and density.

Other potential areas include analysing archaeological objects to help identify their place of origin.

Professor Evans’ work contributed to the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education, which was awarded to Nottingham Trent University in 2016. It is the highest national honour for a UK university.

Last year Professor Evans was presented the Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics (IOP). The award recognises those who have made exceptional contributions to the application of physics in an industrial context.

In 2016 he was also awarded the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contributions to Innovation and Technology.

Professor Evans, Head of the Imaging Science Group at Nottingham Trent University and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, said: “I am honoured and very grateful for my appointment to this Fellowship from The Royal Society and The Wolfson Foundation.

"The Fellowship recognises the importance of innovation in science. It represents a hugely important step in supporting my long-term research vision to develop transformative X-ray technologies.”

Professor Edward Peck, Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University, said: “This is further recognition that Paul is one of the outstanding scientists in his field of his generation and we are very proud that his research is being undertaken here at NTU.”

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Nottingham Trent University (NTU) was named University of the Year 2017 at the Times Higher Education Awards, and Modern University of the Year in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018. These awards recognise NTU for its high levels of student satisfaction, its quality of teaching, its engagement with employers, and its overall student experience.

NTU has been rated Gold in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework – the highest ranking available.
NTU is one of the largest UK universities. With 30,000 students and more than 4,000 staff located across four campuses, the University contributes £900m to the UK economy every year. It is one of the UK’s most environmentally friendly universities, containing some of the sector’s most inspiring and efficient award-winning buildings. 96% of its graduates go on to employment or further education within six months of leaving.
Our student satisfaction is high: NTU achieved an 88% satisfaction score in the 2018 National Student Satisfaction Survey.

The University is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable Nottingham Trent to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

NTU is home to world-class research, and won The Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015 – the highest national honour for a UK university. It recognised the University’s pioneering projects to improve weapons and explosives detection in luggage; enable safer production of powdered infant formula; and combat food fraud.

With an international student population of over 3,000 from around 100 countries, the University prides itself on its global outlook.