Gender Male
Phillips travelled in the developing world and worked for the BBC before taking up a faculty position in the Physics department of Imperial College London in 1985, at the age of 27. He was a visiting researcher at the Quantum Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara in 1997-98. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2006
and served as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London, 2008-11.
His research centres on the optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures. known for his work on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), a quantum optical effect whereby a crystal can be made to effectively disappear when it is illuminated by a sufficiently powerful invisible laser. In a departure from physics into the world of medicine he is developing, and now clinically trailing, the new “Digistain” imaging technology.
