Paul Midgley

Paul Midgley is the Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge, affiliated with the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy. His research focuses on advancing electron microscopy techniques for nanoscale structural analysis.

• BSc, MSc, PhD from the University of Bristol

Research Interests: Development of 3D electron tomography, precession electron diffraction (PED), and multi-dimensional imaging techniques to study materials at atomic and nanoscale resolutions. Applications span semiconductor nanowires, catalysts, pharmaceuticals, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

Notable Trends: Recent work emphasizes nanoscale heterogeneities in halide perovskites, mechanochemical amorphisation of MOFs, and structural analysis of pharmaceutical formulations using 3D electron diffraction. Collaborations integrate machine learning and advanced reconstruction algorithms.

Scientific Awards:

• Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society (HonFRMS)
• MAE (Materials Ageing and Environment) Award

Labs & Teams: Leads the Electron Microscopy Group at Cambridge. Research involves dual beam SEM-FIB, EDX, and EBSD techniques for mesoscale tomography. Collaborates with institutions in the UK, Europe, and globally.