Erling Riis

University of Strathclyde

e.riis@strath.ac.uk 

Erling founded the cold atom research activities at University of Strathclyde with an emphasis on the application in precision measurements and in particular compact and portable systems. The integration of a strong research programme with technology development has been a defining feature of the group’s work.

This notably exemplified by the development of the grating magneto-optic trap, which since its invention a decade ago, has been the basis for numerous academic and industrial collaborations and resulted in the availability of new commercial cold atom products.

In separate earlier work the research in the lab was translated to the development of a single-frequency Ti:Sapphire laser, which was subsequently commercialised and eventually led to the establishment of a large production site for laser manufacture Coherent Inc. in the local area.