News

Professor Jaideep Prabhu introduces Jugaad - a way to create good-enough solutions that employ minimal resourcesProfessor Jaideep Prabhu of the Judge Business School, hosted a Winton teatime discussion where he introduced the concept of Jugaad.  A new approach to innovation that adopts a flexible approach to finding low cost solutions to meet the n…

Suchitra Sebastian becomes first academic staff at the Cavendish to be linked to the Winton ProgrammeSuchitra's research aims to create novel emergent phases of matter by the synthesis of new correlated materials and their study under a wide range of conditions of applied pressure, magnetic field, and electric field gradient. Her particular interes…

A process that could revolutionise solar energy harvesting has been efficiently demonstrated in solution for the first time.Solar cells offer the opportunity to harvest abundant, renewable energy. Although the highest energy light occurs in the ultraviolet and visible spectrum, most solar energy is in the infrared.There is a trade-off in harvesting…

Biological physicist joins the Winton ProgrammeDr Ottavio Croze has been appointed, from 1st October 2013, as a Winton Advanced Research Fellow.  Dr Croze is a biological physicist with a background in both theory (PhD in theoretical soft matter) and experiment. He has worked in Biological Physics at University of Edinburgh, Mathematical Biology at…

To maximise the efficiency of solar cells of the future, physicists are taking a leaf out of nature’s bookFocusing on the ancient green sulphur bacteria, Winton Advanced Research Fellows Dr Alex Chin and Dr Nicholas Hine are investigating the early stages of photosynthesis – the process in which plants and some bacteria capture the sun’s light ener…

Latest research paves way for inexpensive, high performance cellsAt the moment, organic solar cells can achieve as much as 12 per cent efficiency in turning light into electricity, compared with 20 to 25 per cent for silicon-based cells.Now, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Washington have discovered that manipulating the 'spin' o…

Dr Siân Dutton has been selected as one of nine scientists to serve in the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Future Leaders initiative.  The STS forum was founded in 2003, with the aim to create a global human network and providing a framework for open discussions regarding the further progress of science and technology for the benefit of hum…

The new Maxwell Centre to be built at the Cavendish announced today by Chancellor George OsborneFunding from government and business combined with that from the Winton Programme of £63m has been announced today for the creation of a new centre for the physical sciences at the Cavendish Laboratory.  “The Maxwell Centre will be the vehicle for transl…

Modeling provides insight into stable form of Li defects in Si which may play a significant role in Li-ion batteriesA new type of crystalline impurity called a Zintl defect has been predicted by Dr Andrew Morris, Winton Advanced Research Fellow and co-workers at the University of Cambridge and University College London. One such example, called the…

Prof Ashok Gadgil from Lawrence Berkeley Visits Cambridge to Talk about Energy and the Environment research and how Technology can make a difference to millions of lives of people in developing countries.The Winton Programme was pleased to host the visit of Professor Ashok Gadgil from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).  Professor Gadgil …

New Winton Pump Prime Awards GrantedA further three Winton pump prime awards have been granted to academics in the Physics department, who will be using the funds to develop new areas of research.Solar energy harvesting and light scattering on polydomain nematic elastomersThe funding obtained by Professor Mark Warner will enable Professor Martin Čo…

Research by Winton Scholar Miloš Knežević and Professor Mark Warner, proposes a new charge pump method to convert solar energy into electricityPhotoferroelectrics are materials in which their ferroelectricity, electric polarization, can be affected by exposure to light.  The proposed device works as a charge pump based on the photoferroelectric eff…

Siân Dutton and Andrew Morris will both be supervising NanoDTC students to work on mini-projects related to battery cell developmentDr Siân Dutton will be working with a NanoDTC student to evaluate candidate electrode materials for Na and Mg-ion batteries.  These alternatives to Li-ion batteries use earth abundant elements (particularly Na) and hav…

Research by Dr Alex Chin published in Nature Physics provides insight on coherent processes in pigment-protein complexesQuantum scale photosynthesis in biological systems, which inhabit extreme environments, could hold key to new designs for solar energy and nanoscale devices.Research performed by Winton Fellow Alex Chin with collaborators from the…

Programme appoints new Scholars and FellowsThe Winton Programme has appointed the second cohort of Winton Scholars and Fellows.  The total community of Scholars and Fellows will more than double to seventeen, with the addition of seven more Scholars and two further Fellows.  Five of the Scholars have already started, details can be found on the web…