History of Magnetic Resonance at Warwick

The Physics department at Warwick has had Magnetic Resonance as a research interest from the time it took its first undergraduates in 1966 when Eddie Seymour and myself (Ray Dupree) were applying Magnetic Resonance to metals and to ionic conductors. There are now 7 academics from Physics and Chemistry plus the 2 Facility managers applying solid state NMR to a wide range of materials including catalysts and battery materials, pharmaceuticals, biomolecules through to plants. The number of NMR spectrometers devoted to this work has grown from one to more than 10. Modern high resolution solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance started at Warwick in 1983 from the realisation that the then recent development of Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) would allow much new information about materials to be obtained and the fact that Oliver Howarth of the Chemistry Department, who ran a facility for solution NMR, was happy to obtain and allow us to use a very early MAS probe to demonstrate its potentiality. These early experiments on glasses and ceramics enabled us to convince SERC (Science Education Research Council – forerunner of EPSRC) to fund a state-of-the-art NMR spectrometer designed for and dedicated to solids at what was then the high magnetic field of 8.45 T (360 MHz). In 1996 the JREI (Joint Research Equipment Initiative) put out a call for new equipment under a matched funding initiative and with University assistance we were successful in obtaining funding (~£1.0 million) for a 600 MHz (14.1 T) spectrometer which, at the time of its installation in early 1998, was the highest field wide bore magnet for solid state NMR in Europe. Following the appointment of further members of staff and additional lower field spectrometers it was clear that the space in Physics was insufficient to accommodate NMR and we moved to Millburn House on the Science Park in 2007. Also, in 2007 the U.K. was falling behind Europe in the availability of high field solid state NMR and a group of 7 Universities, led by Warwick, made an application for a national solid state NMR Facility. This was successful with the award in 2008 of £3.7 million for an 850 MHz (20 T) spectrometer together with additional funding from Advantage West Midlands and the European Development Fund. The spectrometer, sited in Millburn House, commenced operation as a Facility in 2010. In late 2017 funding of £7.9 million was awarded for a 1.0 GHz spectrometer which has been in operation since 2021. As a further boost to the Facility, funding of £17 million was awarded in late 2022 for a 1.2 GHz spectrometer for both solid-state and solution NMR. It is anticipated that this will become operational in 2025 at which time the Facility will have 3 high field NMR spectrometers, becoming one of the best equipped in Europe.

Ray Dupree, July 2023