Professor Stuart Reid

Personal statement

Stuart Reid is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. He leads a multidisciplinary team working on both medical and astrophysics research. Bone: He is co-inventor of “nanokicking”, where nanoscale vibrations are used to persuade stem cells to turn into bone in the lab (ACS Nano 2013, Nature BME 2017). He is in the process of co-founding a company (www.nanokick.com) to help supply bone graft (the most transplanted tissue after blood) for regenerative medicine. UK Charity, Find A Better Way (https://www.findabetterway.org.uk) is funding the first-in-man study of nanokicked stem cells, planned for 2020, with the aim to provide bone graft for patients injured by land mines. IBD amorphous coatings: Reid's lab is also developing and manufacturing some of the most advanced laser mirrors in the world, to enable future gravitational wave detectors to be limited entirely by quantum effects. The team has pioneered the first ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) ion beam deposition facility, and the first elevated temperature ion beam deposition (up to 500C) for the fabrication of ultra-stable "ideal glasses". This technology has enabled the fabrication of the world's lowest optical absorption amorphous silicon (aSi), reaching <20ppm absorption at 1550nm for a quarter-wave layer. The group is also pioneering ultra-low mechanical dissipation mixed oxides, reaching levels of 1.3e-4 for Zr-doped Ta2O5 thin films. MBE crystalline mirror coatings: Working alongside local SME, Gas Sensing Solutions (GSS) Ltd, and Stanford, Glasgow, and West of Scotland Universities, we are developing AlGaP interference optics that can be integrated into silicon optoelectronic devices. Breath analysis (capnograph): Working with Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), we are developing optical coatings to tune (narrow) the spectral response of NDIR (non-dispersive infrared) CO2 gas sensors for use in medical capnography.