Jeremy Henley Burroughes (born August 1960) is a British

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 ...

and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, known for his contributions to the development of

organic electronics Organic electronics is a field of materials science concerning the design, Chemical synthesis, synthesis, characterization, and application of Organic compound, organic molecules or polymers that show desirable Electronics, electronic properties ...

through his work on the science of

semiconducting A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping levels ...

polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

s and

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...

s and their application. He is the Chief Technology Officer of

Cambridge Display Technology Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) is a technology company with head office in Godmanchester, England. It was the first company spun out of the University of Cambridge ever to go public. It was subsequently acquired by Sumitomo Chemical for about ...

, a company specialising in the development of technologies based on

polymer light-emitting diode An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respons ...

Education

Burroughes earned his PhD from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1989. His thesis was entitled ''The physical processes in organic semiconducting polymer devices.''British Library EthOS
retrieved 2016-03-26.

Work

Early in his career, Burroughes discovered that certain

conjugated polymer In physical organic chemistry, a conjugated system is a system of connected p-orbitals with delocalized electrons in a molecule, which in general lowers the overall energy of the molecule and increases stability. It is conventionally represent ...

s were capable of emitting

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

when an

electric current An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is defined as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface. The moving particles are called charge c ...

passed through them. The discovery of this previously unknown form of

electroluminescence Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical phenomenon, optical and electrical phenomenon, in which a material emits light in response to the passage of an electric current or to a strong electric field. This is distinct from black body light emission ...

led to the foundation of Cambridge Display Technology where Burroughes has been responsible for a number of technology innovations, including the direct printing of full-colour

OLED display An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

Awards and honours

Burroughes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2012. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." His certificate of election reads:

References

1960 births Living people British physicists Electronic engineering Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows_of_the_Royal_Academy_of_Engineering {{UK-physicist-stub