LIST welcomes renowned Prof. Ivan Parkin from university College London

On 12 June 2017, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) welcomed the renowned Prof. Ivan Parkin for a visit to the Central Materials Laboratory at LIST’s premises in Belvaux.

About Prof. Parkin

Prof. Parkin is the Dean of the Mathematical & Physical Sciences faculty of University College London (UCL), which ranked among the top 10 universities in the world. Prof. Parkin's work has notably contributed to the world's first self-cleaning glass by Pilkington in 2001, pioneered the field of thermochromic coatings by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) and led to the discovery and commercialisation of discriminating gas sensors based on zeolites through the creation of two start-up companies.

Common activities between LIST & UCL

This visit took place in the framework of several common activities between the Central Materials Laboratory  unit of LIST and the Department of Chemistry of UCL.

Prof. Parkin is the academic supervisor of Mr. Miguel Quesada-Gonzalez, who is carrying out his PhD work on the low-temperature plasma deposition of doped anatase titanium dioxide. Miguel's activities, undertaken in parallel to the PLASMONWIRE project (FNR/CORE), allowed the deposition of crystalline transition-metal oxides on temperature-sensitive substrates (e.g. textiles, polymers), which represents new opportunities in the fields of energy and sensing materials.

In addition to this on-going collaboration, Dr. Caroline E. Knapp, lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at UCL, recently joined LIST in the framework of the PLASMID project (FNR/INTERMOBILITY 2017). Dr. Caroline Knapp, who completed her PhD degree in Chemistry in 2010 at UCL and undertook postdoctoral research at University of California Davis and Imperial College London, is focusing her research activities on the design and synthesis of new precursors for the CVD of functional coatings. During her stay in Luxembourg, Dr. Knapp will investigate, for the first time, the plasma-assisted inkjet printing of highly conductive metallic layers on paper.

During his visit to LIST, Prof. Parkin also exchanged ideas and experience with LIST researchers, in addition to his mentoring role in the POLYPORPH project (FNR/CORE 2015).

To go further

Finally, new common research activities between UCL and LIST have been defined. Such collaborations will strengthen LIST’s international visibility and recognition among the world’s top research institutions.