Emeritus Professor of Surface Coatings and Characterisation

Professor John Colligon

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 11:43:00 GMT

Professor John Colligon was conferred as Emeritus Professor of Surface Coatings and Characterisation in the School of Computing and Engineering

Professor John Colligon John received a First Class Bachelor of Engineering degree at the University of Liverpool in 1958 and went to on complete a Degree of Doctor in Philosophy within the Faculty of Engineering at the same university in 1962.  

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and also of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and is actively working with these professional bodies on committees and in running conferences and seminars. 

Originally, John worked as Senior Scientific Officer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough from 1961-1968 then moved to Salford University; first as Lecturer in Electrical Engineering, then Senior Lecturer and, finally, Professor.  In 1998, he moved to Manchester Metropolitan University as Professor and, in 2014, moved again to Huddersfield University until the contract ended in August 2016.  He has held an honorary visiting appointment at STFC Daresbury Laboratory since 2001.

Professor John Colligon In 1998, John was made a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society in recognition of his “pioneering studies on energy-assisted deposition of thin films”.  In 2013, he received the Institute of Physics Phillips Award for distinguished service to the Institute and, as a member of the IET Tribology Network Committee, he now assists IET in organising annual meetings on the theme of reduction of friction and wear in machines, vehicles and even in surgical implants.  These meetings bring the main research teams and businesses involved in Tribology together to discuss recent developments and new challenges in this field.

John has been an Editor with the Elsevier journal VACUUM since 1981, which brings him into contact with many scientists and their work in the field of vacuum and its many applications.  In 2015, John was awarded the annual British Vacuum Council Prize in recognition of  his work in ion-surface interactions and surface coatings, which represent an important applied area of the vacuum field, and also, for his service to the vacuum community.  He has published over 100 scientific papers, presented a similar number of papers at International Conferences and has made contributions to several textbooks.

John was Secretary General of the “International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications”, which has over 30 member nations, for 3 three-year terms from 1989-1998 and was subsequently chair of its Thin Film Division.

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