John Ellis is the current director of studies for

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

at the

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

. He was born in London in 1963 and is best known for his research on Helium-3 surface spin echo, an inelastic scattering technique.

Early life and education

Ellis studied at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

where he obtained a first-class degree in

. He obtained a Ph.D in

surface physics Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fiel ...

from the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

, Cambridge.
Department of Physics, Cambridge . He then spent three years at the

Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization The Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany, is a research institute for investigations of complex non-equilibrium systems, particularly in physics and biology. Its founding history goes back to Ludwig Pran ...

in Göttingen during which he continued using helium scattering to probe surface structure and dynamics. Thereafter, he returned to Cambridge as a fellow of Lloyd's Tercentenary Research Foundation, later progressing to an EPSRC Advanced Fellow. He went on to become the Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory where he led the development of the Cavendish’s spin-echo instrument and research project.

Research

Ellis specialises in surface physics and imaging techniques.

Helium-3 spin-echo spectroscopy

This technique has the potential for measurements on a

nanoscale Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

distance and over

picosecond A picosecond (abbreviated as ps) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10−12 or (one trillionth) of a second. That is one trillionth, or one millionth of one millionth of a second, or 0.000 000 000 ...

timescales. Ellis published a complete review of the current progress and future scientific challenges in this field in 2009.

Awards

Dr. Ellis was nominated for the Student-Led Teaching Awards in 2019.
CUSU Student-Led Teaching Awards 2019 This is an award given by the

Cambridge University Students' Union Cambridge Students' Union, known as Cambridge SU, is the university-wide representative body for students at the University of Cambridge, England. Its predecessor union was known as Cambridge University Students' Union or CUSU until its dissolu ...

annually with the nominations made by the students themselves.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, John Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British physicists Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge