Rachel Oliver (materials scientist)

Rachel Oliver
OBE FREng FIMMM
Oliver in 2019
Born
Rachel Angharad Oliver
Alma materUniversity of Oxford (MEng, DPhil)
AwardsRoyal Society University Research Fellowship (2006-2011)
Scientific career
FieldsGallium nitride
Basic microscopy
Quantum technology
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Robinson College, Cambridge
ThesisGrowth and characterisation of nitride nanostructures (2003)
Doctoral advisorAndrew Briggs[1]
Websitewww.msm.cam.ac.uk/people/oliver

Rachel Angharad Oliver is a Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. She works on characterisation techniques for gallium nitride materials for dark-emitting diodes and laser diodes.[2][3]

Early life and education

Oliver studied engineering and materials science at the University of Oxford and completed an industrial placement in metallurgy.[when?][4] Her final year masters project was in optoelectronic materials.[4] She completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Oxford in 2003,[1] where she began to work with gallium nitride under the supervision of Andrew Briggs.[4] She used metalorganic vapour-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) to grow quantum dots.[4]

Research and career

She joined the University of Cambridge in 2003 as a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 postdoctoral research fellow.[4] In 2006 Oliver was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) at the University of Cambridge.[5] She studied the morphology of gallium nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs), identifying what factors controlled their efficiency and the impact of defects.[5] She was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant to study semi-polar nitride based structures.[6]

She was appointed a lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 2011.[7] Oliver studies gallium nitride materials for LEDs and laser diodes.[2][8] Her research considers ways to engineer the nanostructure of light emitting diodes and how this impacts macroscopic device performance.[8] She has developed atom-probe tomography and scanning capacitance microscopy to study nitride devices.[8]

Oliver is also working on single-photon indium gallium nitride quantum dots for quantum crystallography.[8] She has looked at the impact of threading dislocations on the quality factor of InGaN cavities. Her group developed the first blue-emitting single-photon source.[9] She was the first to note rabi oscillations of GaN quantum dots.[citation needed] She designed a quasi-two-temperature growth method to pattern GaN quantum dots, which improved their emission by a factor of ten.[9]

Awards and honours

Oliver was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM) in 2019.[10][11] She held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship from 2006 to 2011.[5] In 2021 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering,[12] and in 2023 was awarded the academy's Chair in Emerging Technologies.[13]

Personal life

Oliver's husband is a cardiologist with whom she has a son.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Oliver, Rachel Angharad (2003). Growth and characterisation of nitride nanostructures. bodleian.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 59185823. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.400219.
  2. ^ a b Rachel Oliver publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  3. ^ Rachel Oliver publications from Europe PubMed Central
  4. ^ a b c d e Pain, Elisabeth (2010). "Structuring a Career Around Gallium Nitride". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. doi:10.1126/science.caredit.a1000032. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  5. ^ a b c Anon (2018). "Dr Rachel Oliver: Research Fellow". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  6. ^ Oliver, Rachel (2019). "Study of semi-polar and non-polar nitride based structures for opto-electronic device applications". ukri.og. UK Research and Innovation. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  7. ^ a b Notman, Nina (2015). "The mothers of invention: Nina Notman profiles four researchers successfully balancing an academic career with family life". chemistryworld.com. Chemistry World. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  8. ^ a b c d Wineman, Adina (9 August 2016). "Rachel Oliver". msm.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  9. ^ a b Anon (2016). "Collaboration Casts New Light On Quantum Dots - Science and Engineering". ses.ac.uk. Science and Engineering. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  10. ^ IOM3. "IOM3 members recognised in Women's Engineering Society's Top 50 Women in Engineering: Sustainability". www.iom3.org. Retrieved 7 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride (26 March 2019). "Rachel elected to Fellowship of IOM3". www.gan.msm.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  12. ^ "Academy celebrates first new Fellows elected under Fit for the Future diversity initiative". Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  13. ^ "Professor Rachel Oliver". Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 12 March 2024.