After a career in scientific research and engineering management, Julian began developing optical platform technology for industrial uses in 1998. His first company OTM limited won a DTI SMART award to develop a novel optical sensor for the semiconductor manufacturing sector.Following on, in collaboration with Prof. David Richards (HOD, Physics, KCL), he founded genapta in 2001 to use the cost and scale advantages of telecoms fiber optic technology to make better life science based analytical equipment. As genapta grew, the team worked with major pharmaceutical companies to develop new instruments and techniques for drug screening. In 2006 this work culminated in a platform design that combined micro-optical technology with state of the art microfluidic technology.Due to the nature of the market segment, in 2007 genapta devised a strategy to fully exploit the potential of its work and as a result, the company negotiated a profitable trade sale to an established player in the analytical equipment market in December of that year.
In 2009, he co-founded Skalene Limited to develop and commercialise new technologies and approaches in the industrial printing sector.
Julian has been a regular mentor on i-Teams projects since the early days of the programme in Cambridge:
- Microdroplet microfluidic reactors (Michaelmas 2008)
- Finding real-world uses for microcantilever chemical sensors (Easter 2009)
- Using fingerprints to detect drugs and other metabolytes (Lent 2010)
- Using a new basic technology to revolutionise multiple applications, from filtration to catalysis to biosensing and beyond (Lent 2011)
- MicroEnCAPs – investigating the market demand for self-assembling “smart” materials (Michaelmas 2011)
- An innovation to significantly accelerate the growth of algae (Easter 2012)
- i-Teams Plus – a further investigation of a hydrogen generation technique for fuel cells and combustion (Lent 2014)
- Market opportunities for colour-changing coatings (Michaelmas 2014)
- Commercialising a new approach to nanoscale imaging of surfaces (Easter 2015)
- From Antarctica to the Arctic and everything in between – finding new applications for wave buoy technology (Lent 2016)