The University of Leeds has appointed Edmund Linfield as the first director of its new Bragg Centre for Materials Research.

Currently the chairman of Terahertz Electronics in Leeds, Professor Linfield has helped to establish the university as a global leader in terahertz technology.

He said: “We advance our understanding of high-value materials through a combination of fundamental scientific discovery and applied research, exploiting materials that are often engineered at the atomic or molecular level.

"We also work with industry to understand and tackle their problems.

"These challenges demand that academics work across disciplines, so the Bragg Centre brings together leaders from inter-connected fields to address global problems in materials research.

"I am very excited to see what discov-eries can be made in the coming years by the incredibly talented researchers we have here at Leeds.”

The Bragg Centre’s facilities — available for use by industry and academia — provide advanced capabilities for growth, fabrication, analysis and characterisation of materials.

A number of the facilities have been supported
and funded by the Henry Royce Institute (the UK’s centre for advanced materials research and innovation).

Professor Lisa Roberts, deputy vice-chancellor of research and innovation at Leeds University (www.leeds.ac.uk), said: “Professor Linfield is an outstanding appointment, with a proven track record of leading internationally renowned research.

“Our ‘state of the art’ experimental and analytical facilities rival the best in the UK, and it is this combination of capabilities and expertise that makes Leeds special.”