People

Dr Simon Cockerton, Managing Director. A former research physicist in Professor Brian Tanner's group at Durham University, where he completed a thesis entitled "High resolution double crystal x-ray diffraction studies of III-V semiconductor compounds". During his PhD, Simon worked at the SRS at Daresbury for several months. He then worked as a research fellow in the University of Warwick's Nanotechnology Group.

Simon started his commercial career as Staff Scientist with Bede plc, world leaders in x-ray characterisation for the semiconductor industry. He left Bede in 1994 to set up Crystal Scientific, initially focused on a niche part of the characterisation market. His science background found strong resonances with the x-ray synchrotron community where he saw an opportunity in a market for diffraction crystals traditionally supplied internally by the synchrotrons' own laboratories. With the emphasis of most synchrotrons moving increasingly towards science and away from engineering there was a clear need for a commercial supplier and Crystal Scientific now fills that need.

A further four staff are now employed at the factory.