Serendipity as a Force in Physics

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• Professor Sir Richard Friend, University of Cambridge
• Friday 22 February 2008, 17:30-18:30
• LMH, Lady Mitchell Hall.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Janet Gibson.

Abstract

Discoveries of the very unexpected do keep happening in physics – even in areas previously thought to be settled and classical. Despite the stifling overload of published research and generally over-busy active fields of research, carefully chosen experiments that bring new elements from outside the field can and do reveal surprises.

What are the best steps to follow? When is it wise to depart from the mainstream, or pick up techniques and technologies from outside ‘physics’?

I will select examples from my own work (the development of semiconductor physics based on carbon-based molecular or polymeric materials) and from the field of superconductivity.

Biography

Professor Sir Richard Friend, FRS , FREng

Richard Friend has been a member of the academic staff in the Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, since 1980, where he is the Cavendish Professor of Physics. He pioneered the study of organic polymers as semiconductors, and his research group has demonstrated that these materials can be used in wide range of semiconductor devices, including light-emitting diodes and transistors. He has been active in the process of technology transfer of this research to development for products. He co-founded Cambridge Display Technology Ltd in 1992 to develop light-emitting diode displays, and Plastic Logic Ltd in 2000, to develop polymer transistor circuits, and these are now being developed as flexible active-matrix backplanes for e-paper displays. He is currently working on the use of polymer and related materials for thin-film solar cells.

This talk is part of the Darwin College Lecture Series series.

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