28 Nov

Announcing the Launch of the Oxford Instruments Innovation Centre

Left to right: Cllr. Paul Turner, Mayor of High Wycombe, Countess Howe, Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, and Dr. Ian Wilcock, Managing Director of Oxford Instruments’ Materials Analysis group.

Oxford Instruments has brought together the best of its analytical innovations to form the Oxford Instruments Innovation Centre, a state-of-the-art facility at its High Wycombe site. The Centre forms part of the company’s ongoing contribution to scientific advances in line with its purpose: to enable a greener, healthier, more connected advanced society.

To mark the inauguration of the Innovation Centre, leading figures from the scientific and research communities, and the local community, were recently invited to the High Wycombe facility for a tour of the site and a demonstration of the centre’s capabilities. Guests from the local community included Countess Howe, Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, and Cllr. Paul Turner, Mayor of High Wycombe, and they were joined by many leading lights of the materials analysis research community from both academia and industry.

Following a welcome speech from Dr. Ian Wilcock, Managing Director of Oxford Instruments’ Materials Analysis group, guests enjoyed demonstrations of the company’s materials analysis techniques and tours of its manufacturing facility.

“Understanding the nature, structure and property of materials is fundamental to advancement in many fields of scientific research and product development, from renewable energy and advanced communications to healthcare and food science, and a wealth of areas in between,” says Ian Wilcock.

“The centre allows us to showcase our world-leading analytical instrumentation and facilitate the provision of training by our technique experts. It is also intended as a hub for collaboration, where invited scientists and researchers can access both the technology and the expertise at the core of the Innovation Centre.”

Oxford Instruments solutions support scientists and engineers in their pursuit of knowledge by enabling them to accurately analyse and characterise materials, often down to the nanoscale level. For example, using the company’s solutions, astrogeologists studied the formation and composition of the Winchcombe meteorite, developmental biologists capture live video of embryonic vascular development, and developers investigate structural damage in individual lithium-ion battery cathode particles.

The company was founded in 1959 as the first academic spin out from Oxford University, and since then has grown to become one of the UK’s leading technology firms, with a global footprint, and with its equipment frequently cited in Nobel prize-winning scientific research. Oxford Instruments has won 14 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in Innovation and International Trade since 1967, and its ability to image, analyse and manipulate materials at the atomic and molecular level continues to advance scientific knowledge globally every day.