Prof. Len Dissado of University of Leicester

The lecture will present a personal view of the developments that have been made in our understanding of breakdown, pre-breakdown, and ageing phenomena, in insulating polymeric dielectrics over the thirty six years that I have been working in the field. Topics such as water trees and electrical trees where major advances have been made will be covered. It will be shown how new techniques such as the measurement of space charge have revealed new phenomena such as the existence of charge pulses as well as allowing us to measure charge distributions in insulating materials in a non-destructive way. They have also advanced our understanding of ageing and helped in providing a means of ageing diagnosis. The relationship of failure statistics to breakdown mechanisms will be briefly described. The advantages of new materials such as nano-composites will be fleetingly touched upon. New problems and the unsolved features of the problems that have been addressed will be outlined and finally some guesses as to future trends will be made.

Biography:

Leonard A Dissado: Fellow IEEE from January 2006

Born: St.Helens, Lancashire, U.K 29 August 1942 

Educated: Thomas Linacre Technical School, Wigan, Lancashire, 1953-1960, gaining a State Scholarship for University Entry in 1959.

Graduated from University College London with a 1^st Class degree in Chemistry in 1963 and was awarded a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry in 1966 and a DSc in 1990. After rotating between Australia and England twice he settled in at Chelsea College in 1977 to carry out research into dielectrics. His interest in breakdown and associated topics started with a consultancy with STL begun in 1981. Since then he has published many papers and one book, together with John Fothergill, in this area. In 1995 he moved to The University of Leicester, and was promoted to Professor in 1998, and is now Professor Emeritus. He has been a visiting Professor at The University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, Nagoya University, and NIST at Boulder Colorado. He has given numerous invited lectures, including the E.O.Forster (ICSD 2001) and the Whitehead memorial lecture (CEIDP 2002). Currently he is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions DEI. He was awarded the degree Doctuer Honoris Causa by the Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse in October 2007, and a Honorary Professorship of Xian Jiaotong University, China, in 2008, where he gives a masters course on ‘The physics of insulating polymers’ each autumn.

Prof. Len Dissado of University of Leicester

Biography: