The DMD Team
Richard Lang - General Manager
Dr.Richard Lang has more than 30 years' experience in the design and development of microwave and millimetre-wave technology, components and sub-systems up to 100 GHz. He took on the role of General Manager of DMD in 2006. Prior to that, Richard had worked with Filtronic since October 1999, initially as Programmes Director, in its Comtek Division, and responsible for managing development of cellular base-station equipment; then as Technical Director in its defence division, responsible for a wide range of complex microwave sub-systems.
Previously, Richard worked for nearly 12 years at Thomson Thorn Missile Electronics (formerly Thorn EMI) in Basingstoke where he led major R&D activities of passive millimetre-wave imaging systems (for security screening) and GaAs MMIC technology and sub-systems up to 100GHz. He worked for three years in the USA at General Electric (Syracuse) on HEMT MMICs for phased array antenna applications. His PhD was earned at the University of Leeds on "The Design of Millimetre-Wave Monolithic HEMT Amplifiers." During his career Richard has published a variety of technical papers and articles and has contributed to two USA patents on microwave circuits.
Richard was Chairman of the IEE Electronics Division Professional Group Committee E12 (Microwave Devices & Techniques) from Oct. '93 to Sept. '96 and was Theme Leader for Transduction Devices & Materials within the Electromagnetic Remote Sensing (EMRS) Defence Technology Centre from Jan 2006 to March 2008.
Chris Wort - Business Development Manager
Chris is Venture Manager - Technology at Element Six Ventures, a Luxembourg-based venture capital fund focusing on early and growth phase investments inmaterial science companies. As such, Chris is responsible for undertaking technical due diligence for prospective portfolio companies and giving technical advice to all existing portfolio companies. Prior to this, Chris was Technical Manager at Element Six where he was actively involved in all aspects of CVD diamond commercialization. For the ten years prior to that, Chris was a Principal Scientist developing CVD diamond materials and technologies, being responsible for all aspects of design, construction and management of CVD reactors.
Before joining Element SIx, Chris worked as Plessey Research Caswell Ltd from 1984 to 1990 in the field of Advanced Inorganic and Aerospace Materials where he initiated, built up and ran a specialist Thin Films Section, undertaking R&D into advanced materials and synthesis technologies. For his last two years at Plessey Caswell he was a member of the NVIRC materials sub-committee of the SBAC, helping to predict and initiate research into future military aerospace material requirements. Chris' achievements as a materials expert have been recognized when his work was nominated as a finalist at the Flight International awards for the "most outstanding contribution to Military Aviation during the year 2000" and he has been personally nominated as a "Plessey Innovator of the Year."
Chris holds a BSc Hones Degree from Southampton University (1984), has written more than 40 scientific publications, holds more than 25 patent applications in his name and has had a "UK Secrets" clearance since 1986. Chris is current a director of Diamond Hard Surfaces.
Christopher Ogilvie Thompson - Executive Director
Christopher is Venture Manager - Operations, at Element Six Ventures, a Luxembourg-based venture capital fund focusing on early and growth phase investments in material science companies. Christopher assists in the management of the existing portfolio companies and is on the board of Advanced Oxidation Ltd and Diamond Detectors Ltd.
Prior to this Christopher was Commercial Development Manager at Element Six where he was responsible for launching new CVD diamond companies and products. Christopher also has considerable production and operation experience, having been the General Manager for an Element Six diamond synthesis plant on the Isle of Man. Prior to that he ran a European industrial catalyst distribution business for Johnson Matthey, having offices in three countries. He has managed several large capital installation projects and the subsequent commissioning teams.
Christopher holds an MBA from IMD in Switzerland and a BSc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He is also a Chartered Engineer in the UK.
Richard Balmer - Senior Scientist
Richard Balmer has been working as a senior scientist for Element Six Ltd since February 2006 and is the Programme Manager for Electronics within the R&D group. As such, Richard is responsible for delivering the research and material for several electronics projects including the MESFET activity working with DMD Ltd. Richard has more than 11 years experience researching the epitaxial growth of various III-V and wide bandgap materials using of number of growth techniques. He has more than 50 scientific publications in this field. Of particular note, Richard previously worked at QinetiQ where he was responsible for the GaN material growth that resulted in Europe-leading HFET device performance and Europe's first GaN MMIC (in collaboration with Daimler Chrysler).
Ian Friel - Research Scientist
Ian has been a research scientist within Element Six Ltd since May 2005. During this time he has been project manager on a number of R&D projects, including the development of ultra-high quality single crystal synthetic diamond for optical applications, and the development of a 'tool-kit' of processing techniques suitable for diamond electronic device fabrication. Currently, Ian is responsible for developing and advancing the epitaxial growth of the diamond MESFET structures under the DMD programme. Prior to joining Element Six Ltd Ian completed his PhD thesis which involved MBE growth and characterisation of III-nitride wide bandgap semiconductors for novel optoelectronic devices, publishing 14 scientific papers in the field.
Christopher Snowden
Prof. Christopher Snowden
Professor Christopher Snowden is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Surrey. He is a Vice-President of Engineering, chairing the Engineering Policy Committee, Deputy President of IET and President-elect of the IET. He is a non-executive director of Intense Ltd., a consultant to DMD Ltd and Filtronic plc, a Member of the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and chairs the (industry) User Panel. He is a board member of Universities UK, chairing their Employment, Business and Industry policy committee. Prior to his appointment at Surrey in 2005, he was Chief Executive Officer of Filtronic ICS, having joined Filtronic in 1998 and being promoted to Joint Chief Executive Officer in 1999.
His early experience was with Mullard Ltd and Racal MESL Ltd. He later worked as the Senior Staff Scientist in Corporate Research and Development at M/A-COM Inc. in the USA. He has been consultant for several major international technology companies and has held a number of non-executive directorships. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IET, City and Guilds Institute and the IEEE. He was awarded the 199 IEEE Microwave Prize, the Silver Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004 for his contributions to the microwave semiconductor industry and the 2009 IEEE Distinguised Educator Award. He has published eight books and over 300 technical papers.