Peter Nellist facts for kids

Peter David Nellist is a British physicist and materials scientist. He is a professor at the University of Oxford. Professor Nellist is famous for inventing new ways to use electron microscopes. These microscopes help us see very tiny things.

Peter Nellist's Journey in Science

Peter Nellist studied at St John's College, Cambridge. He earned his first degree in 1991. He then got his Ph.D. in 1996. He worked with John Rodenburg at the Cavendish Laboratory. After that, he did research in the United States. He worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Later, Nellist returned to the University of Cambridge. He then moved to the University of Birmingham. For four years, he worked for a company in Seattle. This company was started by another microscopy expert. Finally, Nellist came back to universities. He worked at Trinity College Dublin. Then he joined the University of Oxford. In 2019, he became a leader in the Department of Materials there.

Exploring the Tiny World with Microscopes

Professor Nellist's work is all about scanning transmission electron microscopy. This is a special way to look at materials. He is known for something called electron ptychography. This technique helps scientists get clearer images. He also works on making microscope images easier to understand.

He helped create special lenses for electron microscopes. He calls them "spectacles for a microscope." These lenses make the images much sharper.

In the 1990s, he worked with John Rodenburg. They found new ways to make microscopes better. This improved both scanning electron microscopes and transmission electron microscopes.

In 1998, he worked with Stephen Pennycook. They took the clearest pictures ever of crystal structures. Six years later, they made even better images. They showed individual atoms in a crystal. They used a new method to fix problems in the microscope's optics. This helped them see things on a super tiny scale.

Awards and Recognition

Peter Nellist has received many important awards. In 2007, he won the Burton Medal. This award is for great work in microscopy. He received the Ernst Ruska Prize in 2013. This was for developing a new type of electron microscopy. He also won the Birks Award in 2013.

He won prizes from the European Microscopy Society in 2016 and 2020. These were for the best published papers in materials science. In 2020, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists. He is also a leader in the Royal Microscopical Society. He helps guide the European Microscopy Society too.