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Professor MacPherson awarded Royal Society Industry Fellowship in partnership with Element Six

fellowshipElement Six, the world leader in synthetic diamond supermaterials and member of The De Beers Group of Companies, announced Professor Julie Macpherson, joint group leader of the Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group in the Department of Chemistry, at Warwick has been awarded a Royal Society Industry Fellowship, to commence October 2014. The fellowship will allow Professor Macpherson in collaboration with Element Six to further develop synthetic all-diamond based electrochemical sensors for high performance electroanalytical applications.

Professor MacPherson’s receipt of this prestigious award is an acknowledgement of her continued and sustained contribution to the fundamental understanding of diamond electrochemistry. This pioneering work has led to the development of new synthetic diamond electrochemical sensing devices and techniques, with potential benefits in a wide range of sensing applications, including biomedical, environmental, food, pharmaceuticals and oil and gas. The collaborative award will enable Professor MacPherson over a period of four years to further develop:

  • An all-diamond polycrystalline electrochemical sensors, comprising Element Six’s free-standing, boron doped synthetic diamond electrode encapsulated in co-planar insulating diamond (represented in the image below) for next generation sensing applications.
  • Combined electrochemical and spectroscopic diamond technologies for the unique chemical identification of complex mixtures of heavy metals at trace levels for contamination monitoring applications.

Professor Julie Macpherson said:

I am honored with this recognition by the Royal Society and the tremendous opportunities on the horizon for diamond electrochemical sensors. This fellowship will really enable us to push forward the significant work already accomplished in partnership with Element Six, building upon the milestones previously achieved and realizing the commercial opportunities.”

The Royal Society Industry Fellowship grant aims to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology and is awarded to academic scientists working on a collaborative project with an industry partner. As partners, Professor Macpherson will focus on the electrochemical development work tailored to applications of commercial interest with Element Six providing the synthetic diamond technical work at its Global Innovation Centre, in Oxford, U.K.