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Personal statement

David Birch was appointed Professor of Photophysics in 1993 having cofounded the Photophysics Group in 1978. His research focuses on fluorescence probes and their application to interdisciplinary molecular grand challenges at the biomedical interface. The Group has raised many millions of pounds of research funding and collaborates with an extensive network of national and international partners across industry and universities. It has successfully trained over 70 research students and post-doctoral fellows, 7 later becoming full professors and others leaders of industry.

David grew up in the Lancashire village of Burscough and then went on to the Physics Department at the to study for his BSc and PhD, which was supervised by John Birks. He lectured there for one year before moving into industry to work in organic mass spectrometry with VG Micromass Ltd. While at VG he recognised the commercial potential of his PhD for which he had designed and built a novel time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) fluorescence lifetime spectrometer.

On arrival at Strathclyde he helped pioneer spin-outs at the University as he started to convert his PhD into what were to become world-leading products though , the company he co-founded with colleagues Bob Imhof and Tony Hallam in 1977. IBH was Strathclyde's first spin-out and one of earliest in Scotland.听 He is a pioneer of modern-day fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy and a driving force that has helped make Scotland their global manufacturing hub by having successfully bridged the Industry-University divide for over 40 years as a Company Director and Academic. As Chairman David led IBH in its merger with in 2003 to form and together they are now the market leader in fluorescence spectroscopy.听

Products arising from David's work on fluorescence instrumentation and techniques are widely used in laboratories across the world for multidisciplinary applications, many of critical importance in understanding the molecular science which underpins healthcare. In recent years聽 his research has focused on biomolecular structure and dynamics down to the single molecule level; melanin structure, photophysics and melanoma; fluorescence guided surgery; glucose sensing for diabetes; aggregation leading to fibrils e.g. beta-amyloid and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease; gold nanoparticle photophysics and its application to sensing, imaging and fluid biopsy and 1-10 nm nanoparticle metrology. A list of is available.

His contributions have been recognised internationally through numerous awards and appointments.听In聽2017 David was awarded the HORIBA Lifetime Achievement Award for 40 years innovation in TCSPC with the Institute of Physics聽聽 for pioneering the UK fluorescence lifetime industry following in 2020.听In 2019 IBH was awarded the聽 for the development of the FLIMera multiplexed TCSPC molecular movie camera.听 Previously IBH won SMART, SPUR, John Logie Baird and Millennium awards for innovation and has sponsored UK university research over two decades.听

David聽is a Fellow of Scotland's National Academy, the聽,听迟丑别 and the . Since 2002 he has held the permanent post of Visiting Professor of Applied Physics at the in Prague, where he has regularly organised fluorescence workshops. In 1998-99 he was awarded the Sir C V Raman Endowment Chair at the and in 2000 held a Visiting Professorhip at . In 2014 he was appointed to the Green Honors Chair in Physics at in Fort Worth. He has competitively won research fellowships from the Royal Society, the Nuffield Foundation and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.听

He was Editor-in-Chief of from 2012-2016. The journal was聽launched in 1923聽as the聽world's first measurement journal and the first research journal produced by the Institute of Physics. Presently聽he is founding co-Editor-in-Chief of . He was a member of the Editorial Board of Plenum's from its launch in 1990 until 2002 and SPIE's 聽from its launch in 1996 until 2019. David served as Head of Department from 2004-10 building up to the Government-led assessment from which the Times Higher Education ranked Strathclyde for the quality of its physics research, the impact case studies arising from David's research in and REF 2021 contributing to the Department's successes. As HoD David helped launch the very successful (SUPA) in 2004 and represented Strathclyde in helping to win 拢48m second round SFC funding for SUPA. In 2005 he cofounded Strathclyde's Centre for Molecular Nanometrology with Professor Duncan Graham and subsequently led a 拢4.9m EPSRC/SFC Science and Innovation Award to support its growth in collaboration with of Kings College London and Guy's Hospital.听

David聽convened the session聽on聽Photochemistry, Photophysics聽and Electrochemistry聽at聽the Congress in Liverpool in August 2018 and has served on the Permanent Standing Committee of the series since 1993. He initiated the Series of International Workshops in Prague in 2009 and Chaired the 12th FluoroFest held in Glasgow in 2017.

Recent invited conference talks include those at and . At MAF2024 in Valencia he was the invited Chair of the symposium in honour of the late and presented a lecture on fluorescence guided surgery. David frequently presents talks about university entrepreneurship, in 2025 for Strathclyde's Physics Society and at the Heyrovsky Institute in Prague on the .听

础听 of David's career has recently been written and published by Wiley Analytical Science. In 2024 he was elected , the Institute's highest accolade awarded for exceptional services to physics.