Petr Zagura: EPSRC Postdoctoral Pathway Scheme

Dr Petr Zaguar sitting in a lab and smiling. There are some large items of equipment by him and he is wearing protective gloves

Many congratulations to Petr Zagura on his EPSRC Postdoctoral Pathway Scheme award (formerly known as the Doctoral Prize).

Petr's proposal was titled 'Universal Persistent Superconducting Joints'. His research will focus on developing technology for joining together a wide range of very high current superconducting wires made from different superconducting materials.

This technology, which is already showing early success (patent pending) is suitable for making joints with extremely low resistance ('persistent-grade': below 10^-12 ohms), for ultra-high field magnets, such as those used in NMR and MRI.

Understanding these intricacies of the interface formed between different superconducting materials using X-ray tomography and electron microscopy, and demonstrating high-specification persistent-grade performance, will be essential to removing the barriers that currently limit magnet performance, and enable partners to usher-in the next generation of ultra-high field magnets.