Seeing molecules in ambient conditions by trapping light to the atom scale – Professor Jeremy Baumberg

"We have long taught students that light cannot be focussed tighter than its wavelength, meaning that watching individual nanoscale objects is really tricky. However this turns out not to be true when we involve ‘coinage metals’ like gold and silver, and our recent work shows how light can be trapped to the 1nm scale and below. I will show in this talk how this is possible, and what we start seeing when watching catalytic and electron-transfer processes molecule-by-molecule. Many puzzles emerge that are only just being unpicked, combining ideas from chemistry, physics, material science, biotechnology and engineering. I will also discuss our recent ideas and developments in making light-powered nanomachines that can move."
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Prof. Jeremy J. Baumberg FRS, directs a UK Nano-Photonics Centre at the University of Cambridge and has extensive experience in developing optical materials structured on the nano-scale that can be assembled in large volume. He is also Director of the Cambridge Nano Doctoral Training Centre, a key UK site for training PhD students in interdisciplinary Nano research. Strong experience with Hitachi, IBM, his own spin-offs Mesophotonics and Base4, as well as strong industrial engagement give him a unique position to combine academic insight with industry application in a two-way flow. With over 20000 citations, he is a leading innovator in Nano. This has led to awards of the IoP Faraday gold Medal (2017), Royal Society Rumford Medal (2014), IoP Young Medal (2013), Royal Society Mullard Prize (2005), the IoP Charles Vernon Boys Medal (2000) and the IoP Mott Lectureship (2005). He frequently talks on NanoScience to the media, and is a strategic advisor on NanoTechnology to the UK Research Councils. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Optical Society of America, and the Institute of Physics. His recent popular science book “The Secret Life of Science: How Science Really Works and Why it Matters” is just published by PUP, see np.phy.cam.ac.uk.