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Personal interaction leads to new opportunities for impact
“If I have a scientific question, I will develop technology in order to help me answer that scientific question. However, once I have developed that technology, I will try and find uses for that technology outside my field.” – Prof Lucio Piccirillo, University of Manchester
Prof Lucio Piccirillo likes talking to people. He especially likes talking to people outside of his own field of radioastronomy. “Interacting with people outside of my discipline is not only fascinating, it can lead to all sorts of opportunities for impact,” says Piccirillo, who is professor of radioastronomy technology at the University of Manchester. He regularly visits other labs or invites researchers to visit his lab and has many stories to tell about how this has led to other opportunities.
For example, while on the search for a new facility to house his lab, Piccirillo met Prof Richard Winpenny director of the Photon Science Institute. After talking to Prof Winpenny about his research, Piccirillo soon realised that he had the technology to help with a particular problem. “We make very low temperature cryostats and Prof Winpenny wanted to perform low-temperature electron magnetic resonance experiments,” says Piccirillo. “We agreed to work together on a project and this has now been funded by an EPSRC Windfall Grant at the University of Manchester.
This project will measure the weak interactions between molecules that are designed to function as “qubits” for quantum information processing and so will impact on the field of computer science.”
Piccirillo believes that interdisciplinary interaction such as this is essential if basic research is going to have an impact on society. “I am science-led,” says Piccirillo. “If I have a scientific question, I will develop technology in order to help me answer that scientific question. However, once I have developed that technology, I will try and find uses for that technology outside my field.”
An example of a scientific problem that led to commercial impact was when Piccirillo and his colleagues needed to develop a more sensitive transistor for detecting weak radio astronomical signals. To make the transistor, the researchers used electron-beam lithography, but conventional electron beam lithography technology had its limits. So Piccirillo and his colleagues had to develop a new type of chemical resist in order to make the kinds of structures that they needed. “Our new resist might enable chip makers to make structures that are not possible with other resist technology,” says Piccirillo. This technology is now being commercialised in a spin-off company and Piccirillo believes this could have considerably commercial impact.
Piccirillo is always on the lookout for opportunities like this, but he admits that he can’t do everything. He is an astrophysicist and he can’t possibly know about all the applications where his technology might be used. So he does what he does best – he talks to people. “I have built up a network of contacts who can help me identify opportunities,” says Piccirillo. “When faced with thinking about impact, I would encourage people to talk to each other, especially those outside their own field of research.”
Institution:Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Funding council:STFC