Alan Owens

Dr. Alan Owens holds an undergraduate honors degree in physics and physical electronics, and earned his doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Durham, United Kingdom. He spent over 30 years engaged in the design and construction of novel detection systems for X- and gamma-ray astronomy, and is currently a staff physicist at the European Space Agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. He also holds an honorary senior lectureship in space science at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Dr. Owens is currently involved in the development and exploitation of new technologies for space applications. Much of this work revolves around compound semiconductors for radiation detection and measurement, which by its very nature involves materials and systems at a low maturity level. Consequently, he has been involved in all aspects of a systematic and long-term program on material assessment, production, processing, detector fabrication, and characterization for a large number of compound semiconductors.