I have been active in applied superconductivity and fusion through various roles over the last 11 years, gradually moving from the complicated microscopic physics in state-of-the-art technological superconductors, through to the large-scale engineering (design, manufacturing and testing) of fusion magnet technologies.

Before joining SPC-SG, I worked at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, developing superconducting Remountable Magnet Joint (RMJ) technologies and test facilities for the UK's Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) project. The STEP project aims to deliver a HTS prototype fusion power plant in the early 2040s, and it is managed by the UK government. I led a small team of scientists and engineers who were tasked with maturing superconducting RMJ technologies; a significant undertaking. Superconducting RMJ's were first conceptualised nearly half a century ago, but they have yet to be demonstrated in a fusion device. Key successes included a granted patent on RMJ technology, the development of the organisation's first superconductor test facility (ELSA), and joint designs for the STEP conceptual design.

Before that, I did a PhD in applied superconductivity at Durham University. My work there was focused more on the materials/condensed matter physics aspects of superconductivity, and included some detailed high field, high current, cryogenic measurements on superconducting tapes and strands, that required the development of novel cryogenic apparatus. The purpose was to try to determine the current carrying capacities (critical currents) of state-of-the-art LTS and HTS under strain, and what microstructural properties could be changed to improve their performance. Most significantly, I showed the breakdown of the decades-old, ubiquitous flux pinning scaling laws for the critical current in state-of-the-art HTS, and proposed a new framework for understanding current flow at criticality, based on Josephson junctions, that included the wave-particle nature of the superelectrons in the materials.