Leading Light: Professor Paolo G. Radaelli

Our final Leading Light is physicist and academic Paolo G. Radaelli, Dr Lee’s Professor of Experimental Philosophy at the Clarendon Laboratory at University of Oxford and a professorial fellow at Wadham College.

His research is focussed on the study of transition metal oxides displaying novel physical phenomena, such as high-temperature superconductivity, “colossal” magneto resistance or multiferroics behaviour. The aim is to apply this research to the next stage in computing technology. The current silicon-based technology is incredibly energy-inefficient and magnetic oxides may be the key to moving information around with very little energy consumption.

Paolo and his team have used Diamond’s I06 Nanoscience beamline and the PhotoEmission Electron Microscope (PEEM) as part of their research.

He has also worked at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, first as an instrument scientist on GEM, then as Crystallography Group Leader and STFC Fellow. A massive contribution to science was his work on creating WISH, a high resolution magnetic diffractometer that is so in demand that ISIS is building a copy of it.

He was also part of the working group that developed the successful proposal for a high-resolution powder diffraction beamline I11 at Diamond.