Carol Trager-Cowan is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who is a Reader (Associate Professor) in physics and Science Communicator at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

. She works on

scanning electron microscopy A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that ...

, including

Electron backscatter diffraction Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique used to study the Crystallography, crystallographic structure of materials. EBSD is carried out in a scanning electron microscope equipped with an EBSD d ...

(EBSD), diffraction contrast and

cathodoluminescence Cathodoluminescence is an optical and electromagnetic phenomenon in which electrons impacting on a luminescent material such as a phosphor, cause the emission of photons which may have wavelengths in the visible spectrum. A familiar example i ...

imaging.Carol Trager-Cowan's

Education and early career

Trager-Cowan was an undergraduate student at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, where she earned a bachelor's degree in

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

in 1983. She moved to the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

for her graduate studies, earning a master's degree in 1984. Her dissertation considered

hot electron Hot commonly refers refer to: *Heat, a hot temperature *Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality Hot or HOT may also refer to: Places *Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand ** Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...

s in

Gallium arsenide Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a Zincblende (crystal structure), zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monoli ...

. She moved to

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

for her doctorate, completing her thesis on electrostatic electron lenses in 1987 supervised by . She completed experimental and theoretical investigations into electrostatic lenses.

Research and career

Trager-Cowan is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Physics at the

. She develops fast, non-destructive characterisation techniques to study crystalline materials. In particular, Trager-Cowan works on nitride semiconductor thin films.

Nitride In chemistry, a nitride is a chemical compound of nitrogen. Nitrides can be inorganic or organic, ionic or covalent. The nitride anion, N3−, is very elusive but compounds of nitride are numerous, although rarely naturally occurring. Some nitr ...

semiconducting films form the basis of

solid-state lighting Solid-state lighting (SSL) is a type of lighting that uses semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), or polymer light-emitting diodes (PLED) as sources of illumination rather than electrical filaments, ...

satellite communications A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. ...

and

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

. The performance of nitride light emitting devices depends on the number of extended defects, which can cause scattering of light or charges and result in poor device performance with short lifetimes. Defects limit device performance due to non-radiative recombination and high leakage currents. Extended defects including threading and partial dislocations, grain boundaries and stacking faults, and can be electrically active. Trager-Cowan develops sensitive characterisation techniques that can detect nanoscale defects, including

electron backscatter diffraction Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique used to study the Crystallography, crystallographic structure of materials. EBSD is carried out in a scanning electron microscope equipped with an EBSD d ...

and electron channeling contrast imaging. These make it possible to uncover the structure, texture and strain within semiconducting crystals. Trager-Cowan uses the Timepix semiconductor hybrid pixel detector developed by

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

. Timepix allows direct electron detection with exceptional detail. Electron channeling contrast imaging allows Trager-Cowan to analyse the failure mechanisms in nanoscale electronic devices. Trager-Cowan is a member of ManuGaN, a multi-university collaboration to fabricate

gallium nitride Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV af ...

on a manufacturing scale.

Public engagement and outreach

Trager-Cowan is involved in public engagement and outreach, delivering popular science lectures and running science workshops with schools. She was described by Gail McConnell as an inspiration. Trager-Cowan has worked with the

Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow is a learned society established in 1802 "''for the improvement of the Arts and Sciences''" in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It runs a programme of lectures, starting its 222nd Series in October 2023. ...

, Glasgow Science Festival and European Researchers Night. In 2007 she was named the "Strathclyder of the Year" in recognition for her work encouraging school students to study physics. She is an elected member of AcademiaNet and the

Women in Science and Engineering group.

Awards and honours

In recognition of her public engagement, Trager-Cowan was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(FRSE) in 2014. She is a

Fellow of the Institute of Physics Fellowship of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) is "the highest level of membership attainable" by physicists who are members of the Institute of Physics (IoP), "for those with a degree in physics or related subject (or equivalent knowledge gaine ...

(FInstP) and the

Royal Microscopical Society The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the Society gained it ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trager-Cowan, Carol Scottish physicists Scottish women physicists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Strathclyde Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish women academics British science communicators 21st-century Scottish women scientists 21st-century Scottish scientists