Role
Ed is a Principal Lecturer in Physics and the Undergraduate Courses Manager at NTU, with primary research interests in both exotic NMR(I) experiments and innovative teaching and learning for physics. Ed acts as academic lead for undergraduate physics at NTU, as well as the principal undergraduate course developer. Ed lectures topics in Thermodynamics, Semiconductor Physics, and Ionising Radiation, and takes pride in an engaging, multi-platform teaching style to convey advanced topics in physics.
Career overview
Ed obtained a 1st class MSci Physics degree from NTU before completing his PhD in Temperature-Jump Dynamic Nuclear Polarization at the University of Nottingham. Ed has worked in a number of commercial environments at companies such as Thomas Keating Ltd. and Cole Parmer, consulting on low-temperature physics, nuclear magnetic resonance, and inductive electronics, and has provided associate supervision on a 5* rated Knowledge Transfer Partnership. Over the past 7 years Ed has taught, developed, and led numerous modules, and acted as cohort-wide Year 2 Tutor. Ed is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has won awards for his excellence in teaching (2019 Team Award for Teaching & 2023 Vice-Chancellors Teaching Excellence Award) and student support (2020 Student-Led Teaching Awards – Outstanding Pastoral Support).
Ed enjoys scientific communication and has been featured on national television (including BBC’s The One Show) and radio, as well as having been invited to present international talks on topics in popular physics. The live shows and events he has been involved with have drawn a total footfall on the order of 70,000 people over the last 5 years, and Ed is currently looking into the diversification of his outreach portfolio, and training others to support similar packages. Ed currently sits as the Chair of the National Support Network for the "I am a Physicist" Girlguiding Badge, a challenge that Ed has been involved with since its conception and has thus far been completed by over 46,000 girls across the globe.
Research areas
Ed’s career path at Nottingham Trent University is Teaching and Scholarship, meaning that his research interests align most strongly with innovative pedagogies, enhancement of the student experience, and student progression. Ed’s primary area of research outside of such pedagogy is in instrumental physics and novel magnetic resonance hardware and applications, although he is particularly interested in the natural world, specifically fascinated by minerals, invertebrates, and marine life.
External activity
Ed holds positions with the following:
- Regional Chair of the Institute of Physics (East Midlands Branch)
- Charitable Trustee at Green’s Windmill Trust, Sneinton
- Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
- Chair of the NTU Physics Industrial Liaison Group
Publications
Breeds, E., 2018. Novel hardware for temperature-jump DNP (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham).
Newton, M.I., Breeds, E.A. and Morris, R.H., 2017. Advances in electronics prompt a fresh look at continuous wave (CW) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Electronics, 6(4), p.89.
Press expertise
- MRI
- Low temperature physics
- Thermodynamics
- Physics of Invertebrates
- Physics of Marine Invertebrates
- Do-it-at-Home Science Experiments
- Scientific Communication