Professor John Murphy
Professor John Murphy
Professor of Electronic Materials
Head of Department
Head of the Electronic Materials and Interfaces GroupLink opens in a new window
John dot D dot Murphy at warwick dot ac dot uk
+44 (0) 24 7657 5378
Biography
John joined the University of Warwick in February 2013 as Assistant Professor of Energy Materials. He was promoted to Associate Professor in May 2015, to Reader in June 2018, and to Professor of Electronic Materials in December 2018. He previously held his Royal Academy of Engineering/ EPSRC Research Fellowship in the Department of MaterialsLink opens in a new window at the University of OxfordLink opens in a new window, where he remains an Academic Visitor. He was also Junior Research Fellow, Lecturer and Director of Studies in Materials Science at St Anne's College, OxfordLink opens in a new window.
He graduated with an MA in Physics (2003) and a DPhil in Materials Science (2006) from Oxford. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGDipLATHE). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Chartered Physicist (CPhys).
He is the author of 93 publications (see full list), and has given or is scheduled to give 49 conference presentations including invited presentations at High Purity and High Mobility Semiconductors 15 at the Electrochemical Society Fall Meeting (Cancun, Mexico, 2018), the 16th Gettering and Defect Engineering in Semiconductor Technology Conference (Bad Staffelstein, Germany, 2015), the 23rd NREL Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells & Modules: Materials and Processes (Colorado, USA, 2013), the Gordon Research Conference on Defects in Semiconductors (Maine, USA, 2012), the High Purity Silicon Symposium of the Electrochemical Society Fall Meeting (Hawaii, USA, 2012), the International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors (Nelson, New Zealand, 2011), and the International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials (Sapporo, Japan, 2009).
He was chairman of the 15th Gettering and Defect Engineering in Semiconductor TechnologyLink opens in a new window (GADEST) conference, which was held in Oxford in 2013. He was co-chair of the 2015 Recent Appointees in Materials ScienceLink opens in a new window (RAMS) Conference which was held in Warwick in September 2015. He is Principal Organizer of Symposium ILink opens in a new window (Materials research for group IV semiconductors: growth, characterization and technological developments III) at the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) Spring Meeting in Strasbourg, France, in 2018.
Research Interests
John's research lies at the interface of Engineering, Physics and Materials Science. The main focus is on understanding the physics of defects in electronic materials, and exploiting this knowledge to engineer a material with improved properties. John held a Royal Academy of Engineering/ EPSRC Research Fellowship from 2008 to 2013, which focussed on improving the cost-effectiveness of silicon photovoltaics.
His work has resulted in improved understanding of the fundamental properties of efficiency-limiting defects (transition metal point defects, dislocations, precipitates) and interactions between defects. He has developed processes to minimise the detrimental effects of crystal defects; work which was supported by an EPSRC First Grant (EP/J01768X/2). Since February 2015 he has been Principal Investigator of the £1.3m EPSRC "SuperSilicon PV" project (EP/M024911/1) which includes activities at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester. Much of his work is in collaboration with industry, most notably SunEdison (previously MEMC Electronic Materials), but also many other suppliers of silicon to the solar cell and integrated circuit industries.
John's other research interests include lithium-ion batteries, defects in other crystalline materials such as wide bandgap semiconductors (GaN, SiC), thermoelectrics and BCC metals.