IPEC Conference Agenda

Dr. Hughes started his post graduate career serving in United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, where he was commissioned and rose to the ranks of Commander involved in Weapons Electronics serving on surface vessels. During his service in Royal Navy, Dr. Hughes continued his academic engagement and gained dual doctorates in the field of theoretical physics and subsequently in applied mathematics. His physics thesis focussed on quantum chromodynamics, (QCD), specifically on the action and reaction of quarks and gluons within gauge fields, (the strong force). This establishing the coloured nature of the six identified quarks and establishing their red, green or blue, status within the standard model of fundamental particles and leading the way to the super symmetric model of fundamental particles where alignment between fermions and bosons are given. (Fermions are matter particles and have half spin integer while bosons are force particles and have integer spin). As a part of this quantum physics work, it was necessary to create new applied mathematics to resolve the proof required for the quantum property derivation of the colour, both for the positive and the negative, anti-colour, identified for the quarks. His second doctoral thesis focussed on a branch of combinatorics, a discrete mathematics focused on counting, arranging, and combining elements within finite sets ideally suited for the probabilistic mechanics encountered at a quantum level. This mechanistic approach enabled a novel and fresh understanding of the now famous Feynman diagrams of particle physics interactions. Alongside his engagement with quantum mechanics, whilst still in the Royal Navy, Dr. Hughes completed an HND in Electronics with focus on semiconductor technologies and thermal dynamics establishing strong roots in academia as well as professional engineering and electronics. On leaving the Royal Navy Dr. Hughes followed a career path that led him to head research and development in several leading semiconductor companies working in the power MOSFET, IGBT and Thyristor field gathering several patents relating to the thermal management and power depletion of heat within power semiconductors as well as eutectic design in dissimilar high thermal transfer laminates. He subsequently focussed on the design and development of power control systems with particular emphasis on new electric motor designs, motor control and energy management systems. He worked in the United States and Canada for over a decade establishing him as an international player both academically and in the engineering branches in which he was involved. On returning to the U.K, his entrepreneurial spirit drove him to create a company designing and manufacturing fixed speed electric motor energy control and power management systems. Though now retired from the UK enterprise he founded, Dr. Hughes continues to be engaged with Physics and Mathematics and contributes through editorial work for Wikipedia as well as the Science Forum, arXiv, additionally he is an Emeritus Fellow of St. Edmunds College, Cambridge. ​