The Royal Academy of Engineering has appointed Alan Kemp as the first Fraunhofer UK research ‘chair’ at Strathclyde University. The collaboration between the university, the Royal Academy and Fraunhofer UK has also resulted in the creation of the Centre for Applied Photonics at Strathclyde. The professor, who is the team leader at the university’s Institute of Photonics, will lead research into the use of diamond in solid-state laser engineering and the development of compact ultra-short-pulse lasers for biological imaging and other applications.