Biography
Professor Greg Parker – Scientific Consultant
B.Sc.(1st Class Hons), Ph.D., C.Phys., C.Eng., F.Inst.P.
Greg was born in Essex (U.K.) in 1954. On leaving school he joined the Harwell & Culham laboratories where he took an H.N.C. in Applied Physics at Oxford Brookes University (then Oxford Polytechnic). After two years, having gained a taste for study, he went to the University of Sussex to take a degree in Physics Maths & Astronomy. In June 1978 he graduated with a First Class Honours Degree. Greg then joined the Philips Research Laboratories in Redhill, Surrey (U.K.) and at the same time enrolled for a Ph.D. with the University of Surrey, Guildford (U.K.). The Ph.D. was awarded in December 1982, the subject being “Characterisation of Deep-Levels in Silicon for Applications in Thermal Imaging”.
A further five years were spent in Industry until 27th April 1987 when he joined the Department of Electronics (as it then was) at the University of Southampton, Hampshire (U.K.). In December 2000 Greg became Professor of Photonics in the School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton. His research during this time was in two main areas:
1) Novel growth systems for Silicon compatible materials
2) Silicon-based optoelectronics
Greg has designed, built & developed 4 LPCVD systems for the Microelectronics Group at the University, the latest system being a large 6-chamber cluster-tool. These systems are used for research into novel devices incorporating Si, SiGe, SiGeC and Silicon Nitride.
He has published over 120-refereed papers and three books. His first book publication was an introductory semiconductor physics textbook which appeared in 1994 and is still selling well (though with a different publisher). His second book “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images: Astrophotography with Affordable Equipment and Software” one of the Patrick Moore “Practical Astronomy” series was published by Springer in September 2007. His third, and latest publication with Noel Carboni is Star Vistas, a large-format coffee-table book published by Springer and contains our best deep-sky images taken from early 2005 until early 2008 at the New Forest Observatory. Star Vistas appeared on the shelves in March 2009 and has Forewords written by Sir Arthur C Clarke, Sir Patrick Moore and Dr. Brian May.
Around 1994 Greg was investigating the formation of high aspect-ratio single crystal Silicon pillars for their light emission properties. This research included (unintentionally!) the fabrication of a Photonic Crystal as part of the process. Since that time Greg’s research has mainly concentrated on Silicon compatible Photonic Crystal structures and their applications.
Greg is currently the Managing Director of Parker Technology, which is his Consultancy Company, and Professor of Photonics at the University of Southampton. Prior to creating the University spin-out company Mesophotonics Ltd. he created and sold two other successful companies.
Greg lives in the New Forest (U.K.) with his wife, son, Celestron Nexstar 11 computer-controlled telescope, Sony VAIO PCG-C1MHP, and Toshiba Libretto U100 – the most amazing sub-notebook on the planet.
Greg’s consultancy e-mail address is greg@concept2innovation.com