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Jane Hodgkinson gained a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1989 (studying physics in the final year). In 1998 she gained her PhD from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, via a collaboration with United Utilities to develop optical sensors for water quality. She then moved to the gas industry (Advantica, formerly British Gas Research), developing and testing new technologies for detecting gas leaks and other interesting measurands. In 2004 she moved to Cranfield University via an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship, where she established gas detection laboratories within the Centre for Engineering Photonics and now leads optical gas detection activity with funding from EPSRC, NERC, Innovate UK, the Royal Society, Horizon 2020 and industrial collaborators. Jane is a Member of the Institute of Physics, a Chartered Physicist, Chartered Engineer and a Member of SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics.
Jane first attended meetings of the GASG in 1998 when she joined the gas industry and has been a regular ever since, finding it invaluable especially when she was starting out. She later joined the committee and in 2015 was elected to Chair. She chaired the MNT Gas Sensor Forum, and was lead author of the resulting MNT Gas Sensor Roadmap and an Invited Review Article for the journal Measurement Science and Technology. She designed the (patented) optics in the Alphasense range of NDIR sensors. Outside of work she enjoys cycling in all weathers, fellwalking, cold-water surfing on a fancy piece of plywood and trying to keep up with her twin sons.
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Peter graduated in Chemical Physics at the University of Kent in 1973 and obtained a PhD there in 1978 for Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction studies on lanthanide compounds. He also has an MSc from the Dept. of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, awarded in 1989. He joined the Health & Safety Executive in 1976 at their Sheffield laboratories, developing and applying gas sensors for flammable and toxic gas detection in the workplace. He represented HSE and GB at British and European Standards committees respectively on workplace and domestic gas detectors between 2000-2015, chairing the Working Group that developed the first European standards on toxic gas detectors for the workplace. He retired in 2015. He joined GASG at its inception in 1993 and became its Vice Chair in 2016 and a Director.
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Joe Watson graduated in Electrical Engineering at Nottingham University and subsequently won a King George VI Memorial Fellowship to MIT, where he studied nuclear engineering and particle accelerators and worked with both Prof. John Trump (The Donald’s uncle) and Robert Van de Graaff (inventor of the eponymous megavolt generator). Joe returned to Nottingham to undertake an Ericsson-funded PhD programme on sensors and instrumentation for the nuclear reactors of the time, and his final industrial post was as Head of Process Control Electronics with Hilger & Watts Ltd., a leading opto-electronic firm based in London.
A desire to move away from London led to Swansea University’s coastal campus plus several invited visiting posts, notably at the University of California (both Davis and Santa Barbara). At UC Davis, Joe met Verne Brown, the American who founded ENMET, for which he designed that company’s first gas detector, a hand-held instrument for locating fuel vapours in small boats and which used the early Figaro semiconductor sensors.
His first book, on semiconductor circuit design, was published in 1966 and contained a chapter on semiconductors as light transducers both for sensing and generation; and in 1977, semi-conductor gas sensors were introduced into the third edition. During a visit to Japan funded by the Royal Society, he visited Figaro and in 1994, CRC Press published a monograph on stannic oxide gas sensors co-written by Joe with Figaro’s Kousuke Ihokura. He also co-edited ‘Aerospace Navigation Systems’, published in 2016 by Wiley.
Joe was a leading force behind the formation of the Gas Analysis and Sensing Group in 1993 and served as Chair for over 20 years before moving to his current position as President.
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John Saffell has a BSc in Chemistry from MIT and a PhD in Materials Science from University of Cambridge. He founded Solomat Ltd, in 1979, developing and manufacturing air and water quality instrumentation. In 1997 he co-founded and was Technical Director of Alphasense Ltd. until 2021, developing and manufacturing gas and particle sensors for industrial safety and air quality.
John sits on standards committees in both Europe and the USA. He is Chairman of the UK trade association for gas detection: the Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring (CoGDEM) and is a Fellow of the Institute of Measurement and Control.
He is currently a Director of NosmoTech Ltd, consulting in air quality and developing a sensor network for monitoring thermal comfort and IAQ.
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After graduating in Physics from Birmingham University in 1978, Martin joined the National Coal Board to work on sensors for challenging underground environments. He was awarded a PhD from Nottingham University in 1987 for studies of the surface chemistry and electrical behaviour of tin oxide semiconductors.
In 1994 he moved to City Technology, developing commercially successful optical, catalytic and electrochemical sensors and was awarded a Honeywell Technology Fellowship in 2015.
He has published over 40 papers and patents and is a member of the Institute of Physics, with Chartered Physicist and Chartered Engineer status.
Since retiring in 2021 he has been a Director of GASG.
+ Born and bred on the south coast, at university Adrian discovered the wonders of gas-phase molecular spectroscopy and emerged in 2002 with a D.Phil in Physical Chemistry and absolutely no idea how to use it. After brief sojourns in IT and the civil nuclear industry (which in places was anything but civil…) he moved north to Nottingham and spent four years cajoling temperamental laser systems into operation all in the name of Molecular Photoionisation Dynamics.
Alas, the call of matters nuclear was too strong and he moved back south to take up a position at AWE. Initially in the Materials Science division, where infrared spectroscopy was his weapon of choice, a few years ago he switched focus and currently reside in AWE’s Nuclear Threat Reduction area.
He joined the GASG committee quite a while ago and his sole useful contribution thus far has been to produce a selection of poorly-drawn cartoons in order to lower the tone of GASG meeting agendas.
+ Laura has worked for PPM Technology Ltd, North Wales since 2004 and was made Director of Chemistry in 2022. PPM Technology Ltd are world leaders in gas detection who specialise in Formaldehyde monitoring. Laura studied Chemistry in University of Wales, Bangor and is a member of The Royal Society of Chemistry. She initially started her career in biochemistry and geological chemistry before moving to gas sensors. Laura manages the design and development of Indoor Air Quality monitors and specialises in sensor technologies. She also implemented and manages the ISO Quality Standard along with Health and Safety for the company.
Outside of work, Laura is a busy Mum of two who enjoys travel, cold water swimming and sailing. Laura is a school governor and councillor for her local town. In recent years, she has also served as Lady Mayoress.
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Norman Ratcliffe has worked for a range of companies in the Electronics, Aerospace and Nuclear industries as well as in the agri-food and medical diagnostics areas with over 170 refereed publications, reviewed industrial reports and patents. Norman has specialised in the gas/volatile analysis area for over 20 years particularly for the agri-food and medical industry involving an automated electronic nose system for quality control of ham and the first VOC quality control system for monitoring stored vegetable produce (for potato tubers). Medical areas particularly include the rapid diagnosis of gastro-intestinal conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, infectious diseases of the gut, eg hospital acquired infections, and diseases of the urinary tract particularly infections, prostate and bladder cancer, using electronic nose technology and GCMS for analysing breath, stool, saliva and urine.
Norman’s research in the non-gas analysis areas includes conducting polymer syntheses, patented work on the synthesis of nano-magnetic particles for environmental clean-up, particularly radioactive contamination, and jet fuel additives to improve aeroplane safety.
Previously Norman undertook post-doctoral research at Imperial College on the synthesis of novel insect anti-feedants (1981-82) and at Bristol University in collaboration with the Royal Signals Research Establishment on molecular electronics projects (1983-86). This was followed by work as Senior Scientist at Sowerby Research Centre, British Aerospace (1986-90) and then senior lecturer at the University of West of England, becoming professor in 2003 and Research Centre Director in 2006. He has been a committee member of the GASG for many years.
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Clare is a postdoctoral research associate at the Open University in Astrobiology OU. Her current research focuses on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as astrobiological targets as biosignatures. This involves assessing volatile signatures from extreme environments and their potential microbial inhabitants – as a comparison to the potential environments that may exist on other planetary bodies such as Mars or the subsurface oceans of the icy moons Enceladus and Europa. She also works with developing methods and techniques for mitigation of organic contamination for planetary protection and commercialisation.
Prior to delving into Astrobiology she spent many years researching VOCs in medical diagnostics and trying to develop diagnostic platforms.
+ After working in fields ranging from education to haircare product design, James graduated with a degree in Applied Physics from Portsmouth University. He then went on to complete a PhD in the Centre for Engineering Photonics at Cranfield University. For his PhD, James developed a new method for integrating Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy with interferometric signal processing to allow the detection and measurement of gas species at multiple locations simultaneously. Since then, he has worked as a post-doctoral researcher developing a number of sensing methodologies for chemical and physical parameters. Outside of work, James is a keen archer, with a particular interest in the English longbow.
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Andy is our long-serving Company Secretary and IT Manager. He supports our hybrid and on-line meetings to ensure that things run as smoothly as possible!
+ Jane Hodgkinson (Chair), Cranfield University*
Joe Watson (President)*
Peter Walsh (Vice Chair)*
Andy Curtis (Company Secretary), Source Testing Association
Martin Willett (Communications Director)*
John Saffell, NosmoTech*
Norman Ratcliffe, University of the West of England (rtd)
Laura Roberts, PPM Technology*
Adrian King, AWE
James Bremner
Claire Batty, The Open University
Samantha Harvey (Office Manager)
*Company Director
