Prof Stafford Withington

Stafford Withington is a Visiting Professor (2011-present) and Senior Researcher in the Particle Physics sub-department  (2022-present) of the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. He is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge (2005 – 2022). He held various positions in the Cavendish Laboratory since 1985, whilst in the Astrophysics Group, and then formed and Directed the Quantum Sensors Group. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield, and a visiting professor at the Space Research Organisation of the Netherlands (SRON).  Formerly, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester (2007-2012). Stafford is an Emeritus Fellow of Downing College Cambridge (1990-2013), and previously held Visiting Fellowships at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and All Souls College, Oxford. Early in his career he held a Royal Society Fellowship at Chalmers University in Gothenberg, Sweden. Prior to that studied for his PhD at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester, and prior to 1985 he worked for various companies including Rolls Royce (aircraft) Engines (1971) Ltd, Marconi Space and Defence Systems Ltd, Thorn Electronics Ltd and Ferranti Microwave Electronics Ltd. Stafford has been a member of many national and overseas committees (EPSRC, STFC, UKRI, ERC, ESA, SFI, NASA, NSF) assessing major science projects, grant applications, fellowships and studentships. He sits on the Oversight Committees of large national science projects. Stafford currently serves on the Board of an international quantum technology steering committee,  based at CERN, with and works extensively with the Space Research Organisation of the Netherlands on space instrumentation.  He has supervised 33 PhD theses, and for many years gave extensive undergraduate lecture series on subjects such as Quantum Mechanics, Electromagnetics, and Mathematics. He has taught and tutored numerous other diverse subjects, including engineering. Stafford has been the PI many high value commercial contracts and research grants in the areas of quantum technology and ultra-low-noise technologies and instruments for fundamental physics and ground-based and space-based astrophysics. He built and ran a complex laboratory for fabricating and characterising superconducting sensors, microcircuits, components and subsystems across the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum, but mostly for the microwave to far-infrared range. Recent work has included massive-particle spectroscopy, and the search for light-dark matter. Throughout his career he has been fully involved in graduate and undergraduate teaching and admissions, and Departmental and College administration.