Professor Welland has been a driving force behind advances in materials that exploit nano-scale properties. He and his colleagues have explored the mechanical, optical and electronic properties of atoms and molecules and grown them into nanostructures by seeding them onto a surface. These structures then intertwine in a form of self-assembly creating a series of different materials and structures that retain their nano-scale properties.

"The achievement has been not in manipulating a single atom but in growing several square centimetres of a novel material," comments Professor Welland. For instance, the team have produced a nano-material that is super-hydrophobic (repels water) which could be scaled up into a coating for car windscreens that might mean you would never need windscreen wipers.