Personal statement
Paul McKenna is a Professor of Laser-Plasma Physics. His research focuses on ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions, including the development and application of laser-driven particle and radiation sources, plasma optics and high field science.
He is a member of EPSRC's Capital Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Team since 2017 and a former member of STFC's Science Board (2017-20). He holds scientific advisory roles for several international high power laser facilities and held a visiting position at the Central Laser Facility at Harwell. He was an EPSRC Leadership Fellow from 2012-17 and was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021.
Within the University, Paul is currently the Vice Dean Research in the Faculty of Science and a member of the Faculty Executive Team. He was Head of Department of Physics from August 2018 to July 2021.
Professional activities
- Program Committee member for the 2023 SPIE International Conference on Applications of Laser-Driven Particle Acceleration
- Participant
- 2023
- Invited Talks (Lectures) at the ELI-Nuclear Physics autumn school 2022
- Speaker
- 10/2022
- External examiner for a PhD candidate at École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, Paris
- Examiner
- 28/9/2022
- SUPA Board of Directors - Member (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 24/6/2022
- External reviewer for an academic appointment at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 3/2022
- Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) - Nuclear Physics Program Advisory Committee (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 2022
More professional activities
Projects
- Optimisation and control of laser-driven radiation sources using machine learning
- Gray, Ross (Principal Investigator) McKenna, Paul (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2026
- Industrial CASE Account - University of Strathclyde 2022 | Torrance, Ben
- McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Torrance, Ben (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 01-Jan-2026
- The Laser-hybrid Accelerator for Radiobiological Applicatons
- Whyte, Colin (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) McKenna, Paul (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2024
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Peat, Maia
- McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Peat, Maia (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2024
- Advanced laser-plasma optics technology | Alderton, Matthew
- McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Alderton, Matthew (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2025
- PhD Studentship for Characterising Laser-driven Particle Beams
- Gray, Ross (Principal Investigator) McKenna, Paul (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2025
More projects