Professor Mike Jennings, Professor Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Swansea University

Professor Mike Jennings is Professor of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Swansea University and a recognised specialist in wide bandgap semiconductor materials and devices. His research focuses on silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), and gallium oxide technologies, with a particular emphasis on enabling next-generation energy-efficient power electronics. Having worked in the field of silicon carbide power electronics since 2003, he has established an extensive track record in semiconductor device physics, design, characterisation, and reliability research.

Professor Jennings is widely known for bridging fundamental research and industrial application, working closely with commercial partners to improve the manufacturability and deployment of advanced semiconductor technologies. His work explores how emerging materials can be translated from laboratory innovation into commercially viable products, helping to accelerate the adoption of high-performance power electronics across sectors such as electrification, energy, transport, and advanced manufacturing.

At Swansea University, Professor Jennings plays a leading role in advancing semiconductor research and developing the next generation of engineers and researchers through postgraduate supervision and academic leadership. He is also a prominent figure within the UK compound semiconductor community and serves as General Chair of ICSCRM 2027.

Dr. Craig Fisher

Dr. Craig A. Fisher currently holds the role of Senior Manager, Silicon Carbide Process Integration and Reliability, at Vishay. Since graduating with a Ph.D in the field of silicon carbide (SiC) power devices at the University of Warwick in 2014, his industrial work has principally focused on the development of SiC MOSFETs and diodes. Dr. Fisher has authored or co-authored over 60 journal and conference papers, and presently serves on the Technical Program Committee for the IEEE Internal Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & ICs (ISPSD) annual conference.

Dr Jose Angel Ortiz-Gonzalez, Associate Professor, Associate Director of MSc Programmes, University of Warwick

Dr Jose Ortiz Gonzalez is an associate professor in the School of Engineering, University of Warwick. He has a MEng degree in Electrical Engineering (University of Vigo, 2009) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (University of Warwick, 2017). His expertise is in power semiconductor device characterisation, reliability, and condition monitoring in power electronics, with a special focus on wide bandgap power devices.  He is the author or co-author of more than 140 journal and conference papers, with 30 as first author, including the 2021 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Outstanding Paper Award for the journal article “Performance and Reliability Review of 650 V and 900 V Silicon and SiC Devices: MOSFETs, Cascode JFETs and IGBTs”.

He has been part of the technical committee of the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) 2021-2026,  member of the organising technical committee of IET PEMD 2024, member of the organising committee of the IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications in Europe 2022, publication co-chair of the IEEE Workshop on Power Electronics for Aerospace Applications 2023 and member of the organising committee of IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC) 2026-2027.

Dr Ortiz Gonzalez is a reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, IET Power Electronics and Elsevier Microelectronics Reliability among others. He is an associate editor of the journals Elsevier Microelectronics Reliability (Outstanding Associate Editor Award 2024), IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics and IEEE Open Journal of Industry Applications.

Dr Ortiz Gonzalez is a member of the IEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) and IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) and a member of the PELS Technical Committee TC-2 (Power Components, Integration, and Power ICs), vice-chair of conferences of PELS Technical Committee TC-6 (Emerging Power Electronic Technologies), vicechair of IEEE IAS Power Electronic Devices and Components Committee (PEDCC), member of the Education Committee of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council and a member of PSMA (Education and Semiconductor Committees).

Professor Owen Guy, Head of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Nanohealth in the College of Engineering, Swansea University

Owen J Guy FRSC (OJG), is Head of Chemistry at Swansea and Director of the Centre for Nanohealth in the College of Engineering at Swansea University; a unique facility applying device fabrication & cleanroom semiconductor processing to healthcare problems in collaboration with industry. Owen is formerly Head of the Systems Process & Engineering Centre (SPEC) one of 3 research centres within Swansea’s College of Engineering. Owen’s group has 18 years’ experience in clean room device fabrication (silicon, silicon carbide, graphene & MEMS technology). Owen’s research background in Silicon Carbide led to him developing the world’s first epitaxial graphene biosensors in 2010 for detection of a cancer risk marker, via EPSRC projects (EP/I00193X/1)[O. Guy et al., 2D Materials 1 (2014) 025004; Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2014. 190(0): p. 723-729; J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, doi: 10.1039/C3TB21235A, Patented under (WO2011004136 A1) and (P100072GB)]. Owen is also pioneering integration of biosensor chips, based on active nanostructure transducers, with microfluidics EP/M006301/1. Owen has also developed silicon microneedle (MN) and microfluidics technology through EPSRC (EP/G061882/1, EP/L020734/1 & EP/I00193X/1, EP/N013506/1), KTP (KTP007901), & TSB / Innovate UK projects (101498), collaborating closely with industry partner SPTS Technologies.

Owen has successfully supervised several more than 15 PhD and MSc students, and is currently supervising over 20 Postgraduate students. Owen has vast experience of industrial collaboration under KTP and Innovate UK (TSB) projects, and has PI grant income of more than £4 million since 2012 and a further £9 million as Co-I. OJG has published over 60 papers, holds 2 patents (WO2011004136 and P100072GB), and was one of six candidates shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering 2009 young entrepreneur award. Owen is a member of the CISM (centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials), led by Prof. Paul Meredith. CISM is a new £30M Semiconductor Centre at Swansea with an additional £60M support from industry.

Dr Wenlong Ming, Reader of Semiconductor Power Electronics, School of Engineering, Cardiff University

Dr Wenlong Ming (WM) has been a Reader of Semiconductor Power Electronics at Cardiff University since August 2023. He was awarded a PhD degree from the University of Sheffield in March 2016 and was funded by EPSRC as an exchange scholar to visit the Centre for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) in Virginia Tech USA, for four months in 2012. He is the Theme Lead on semiconductor power electronics for Cardiff University Net Zero Innovation Institute. 

He conducts fundamental and applied research into future electronic circuits and systems. A paradigm shift of semiconductor technology from silicon to compound semiconductors (CS) brings an exciting opportunity to significantly improve efficiency, reliability and power density of such electronic circuits and systems and to enable new applications that silicon cannot support. The high-level objective of his research is to investigate how to solve research and innovation challenges behind this paradigm shift through seamless and holistic integration of control, power electronics, radio-frequency electronics, semiconductor physics and materials.

Dr Carolyn Short, Marketing Communications Manager, KLA Corporation

Dr Carolyn Short is the Marketing Communications Manager for KLA Corporation in Newport, South Wales, having joined the company (then known as Surface Technology Systems) in 2001. For the past 25 years, she has been responsible for promoting the company’s etch and deposition products, to users in both silicon and compound semiconductor markets. Prior to joining the semiconductor industry, she worked in technical marketing for Alfa Laval Saunders for 6 years. She holds a BEng in Metallurgy and and Ph.D in magnetic materials from the University of Birmingham.