Professor Robert Bowman, Queen's University Belfast

Research Chairs and Senior Research Fellowships 2016-17

In 2017, Professor Robert Bowman was appointed the Seagate Technology - Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Advanced Materials for Data Storage. Robert had already collaborated with Seagate Technology for more than a decade before they commenced this programme to develop new materials for use in the next generation of hard drives and foster wider activity in innovation landscape. The focus of the research is the development of new materials to compliment the next paradigm in hard-disk drive data storage - Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) - this encompasses both magnetic and plasmonic/optical materials with an emphasis on manufacturing scalability and robustness at high temperature. Of particular interest is nitride and oxide based plasmonic/optical materials and creating synthetic magnetic structures to extract both fundamental materials parameters and can be used to tailor the frequency response. In addition, he and the team are investigating the development of beyond HAMR materials - specifically those for All Optical Magnetic Switching based magnetic recording. Here novel magnetic structures are being explored where they might lead to pico-second single pulse deterministic magnetic switching while considering how that might be realised when bit sizes reduce to 7nm x 15nm or less. In tandem, Robert has been the Director of the EPSRC-SFI Centre for Doctoral Training in Photonic Integration & Advanced Data Storage, established in 2014 and refreshed in 2019, with partners University of Glasgow and the Irish Photonic Integration Centre. The Research Chair and partnership with Seagate Technology was instrumental in bringing together an ecosystem of industry and HE/FE partners in Northern Ireland to formulate a vision that secured the investment to establish the £63M Smart Nano NI Programme from the UKRI Strength in Places Fund in 2021. Smart Nano NI aims to exploit opportunity to create novel nano-photonic prototypes, chips and devices by marrying work in the university with SME partners while harnessing Seagate Technology's capabilities in photonics. With ongoing support from Seagate Technology, the Research Chair was extended through to 2027. From 2019-23, Robert is a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, the independent body providing scientific advice to the Scottish Government.

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Personal website: https://go.qub.ac.uk/robertmbowman

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bowman-87859b7/

Twitter: @robertmbowman