Professor James Covington

Biography

James Covington (JC) is a Professor in Electronic Engineering within the School of Engineering at Warwick University.

He has spent his academic career developing chemical and biological sensors for detecting a variety of environmental pollutants and biological agents, applying a wide range of electronic and MEMS techniques in the development of these novel sensors. He setup the Biomedical Sensors Laboratory in 2010, at Warwick University to apply gas analysis techniques to the medical arena. In addition, he has been working on developing low-cost, high-volume chemical sensors for the industrial sector. He has now produced the most cost & power efficient chemical sensors commercially available today, which were licensed to AMS. He has received funding from the EU, MRC, NIHR, industry (including Sony, IBM, Roche, Denso and DSM to name a few) and many charities (including the Rosetree foundation, BROAD foundation, BDRF, Coeliac UK, Lily-May charity and BRET).

He work closely with industry, undertaking a broad spectrum of projects from basic sensor development from sensor fundamentals, instrument/instrumentation development (circuit design, firmware and software) and developing applications from environmental monitoring through to agriculture, food and drink, automotive and to the security sector. He is also the president of the International Society of Chemical Sensors (France) and is a member of both the IET (UK) and IEEE (US) and supports the creation of worldwide industrial standards in sensor. He has also been involved in numerous public events (including at the London Science Museum), TV programmes (Discovery Channel and BBC) and in the media for his work on smell.

Group website: Bio-Medical Sensors Laboratory

Research Interests

• Artificial Olfactory Systems (Electronic Noses)
• Development gas phase analysis sensor systems
• Clinical investigations of gas phase bio-markers of disease
• Application development for medical, environmental and agricultural fields
• Low cost material and sensor development, including metal-oxides and polymers
• CMOS compatible chemical sensors (gas phase)
• Micro-hot plate technologies
• Micro-fluidic devices (pumps, valves)

Recent Publications

2025

Projects and Grants

• BREATHE-AD: Breath-Based Diagnostics for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease, Monash Warwick Alliance, Project State Date 01-08-2025 , Project End Date 21-07-2026
• A RADICAL SOURCE REVEALED IN SOIL: Biogenic Nitrous Acid Production and Effects on Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling, NERC, Project State Date 01-07-2025 , Project End Date 30-06-2028

• Gas phase analysis for medicine, Industry, Project State Date 02-04-2025 , Project End Date 01-06-2026
• Nutrient Soil Stoichiometry Transformation for Optimized Resource Management, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Project Start Date 01-04-2024, Project End Date 31-03-2027
• FBR-Free: Evolving innovative solutions to early detect fusarium basal rot in British onion production, Innovate UK,Project Start Date 01-02-2024, Project End Date 31-12-2025