Yorkshire Science

ColinWhitehouse

Colin Whitehouse is Chief Technologist and a member of the Head Office Board at CCLRC, the UK Research Council responsible for the strategic advice to Government and the subsequent construction and operation of ultra-large scale scientific facilities for the national and international scientific research communities. He is also now the Director of the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, after joining CCLRC as Director of Engineering in May 2003.

After graduating in physics at London (BSc) and Birmingham (MSc) Universities, Colin gained a PhD for his studies of new semiconductor materials which were supported by the GEC Hirst Research Centre where he worked until 1977. He then became a Wolfson Senior Research Associate at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, researching ultra-high stability electronic devices, before joining RSRE Malvern (subsequently DERA Malvern, and now Qinetiq), in 1980. There, he rapidly became Head of RSRE's III-V Semiconductor Materials and Characterisation Research Group, and established major new research teams relating to next-generation semiconductor materials, nanoscience and nanodevices.

Colin then became Professor of Electronic Materials at the University of Sheffield in 1993, and Director of the University's EPSRC National Centre for III-V Semiconductor Technologies and Head of its Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE) Department in 1994. During his Headship, the Department became the top-ranked UK EEE Department, and was the only UK Department at that time to have gained the combined highest possible ratings for both research and teaching. He was then Director of Research for the University's Engineering and Physical Sciences Division for three years and then, in 1999, became the University's Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Research Exploitation, before moving to CCLRC and the University of Oxford in May 2003. During his period as PVCR, Colin was responsible for all aspects of the University-wide research strategy and oversaw very significant advances in the University's research ratings and related income in RAE2001. He was also a Board member of Sheffield University Enterprises Ltd (SUEL) and chaired the very successful White Rose Research Group involving Sheffield, Leeds and York Universities.

Since becoming Director of the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory Daresbury in April 2004, Colin has already become very active in the north-west region driving forward major new ambitious plans for the Daresbury campus. These activities also involve a major new strategic partnership with the new University of Manchester, along with Liverpool and Lancaster Universities and NWDA, and also a full range of other interactions with key regional and national stake-holders. As part of this process, and in view of CCLRC's important national role, Colin also continues as a member of the North West Science Council which he joined in mid-2004.

Colin became a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1994, and was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in 2002. He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford and a long-standing member of the MOD/DTI National Advisory Committee for Electronic Materials and Devices, and of the IEE International Technical Advisory Panel for Electronic Materials and Devices. He has also served previously on many other key UK government and Research Council Committees, and has authored more than 290 journal papers and conference presentations relating to his research.