Meet the Team at IS-Instruments
IS-Instruments was founded by Dr Michael Foster and Dr Jonathan Storey in 2010. Shortly afterwards, they were joined by Nicholas Bantin. Since then, the team has continued to grow to include some of the best and brightest minds in the UK, with specialist knowledge and skills that put ISI in the leading quadrant of its field. As such, as well as providing ‘off-the-shelf’ instrumentation, the team has the ability and experience to design tailored solutions for clients with specific issues across a range of challenging sectors. It’s time for you to meet the team!
Dr Michael Foster
Co-Founder & Director
Dr Michael Foster completed his PhD in 1999 in the study of cometary atmospheres. Due to his interest in instrumentation, he moved into the field of LIDAR and remote sensing. He has worked in this area ever since, playing a pivotal role in several space LIDAR projects. These included designing filtering solutions for EarthCARE, ADM (Aeolus) and the Ascope missions. Additionally, Michael was part of the team that developed the computer model for landing the probe for the Rosetta mission.
Dr Foster is recognised as one of the UK’s leading experts in Fabry-Perot and LIDAR instrumentation. As a result, he has worked with a number of research groups within national institutions and academia. These include University College London, Imperial College London, the University of Leicester, The Open University, and the University of Southampton, where he has developed a variety of concepts.
Dr Jonathan Storey
Co-Founder & Director
After completing a degree in Physics and a PhD in Space Plasma Physics at the University of Leicester, Jon entered the world of optical instrumentation. Since then, he has been responsible for designing and building every element of optical and laser-based instruments for a variety of applications. These have ranged from the highest specification optical filter and 3D landing LIDARs for the European Space Agency to a gas contaminant sensor for British Gas.
His wide range of skills means he is involved in the initial design of a system. Specifically, this involves the optical, mechanical and software elements, through assembly and testing prior to delivery.
Nicholas Bantin
Director
Nicholas Bantin is a former investment banker who worked in the City of London for more than 30 years with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of America. Nicholas has vast experience in corporate finance and lending before moving in 1990 to manage CIBC’s proprietary portfolios. While running the portfolios, Nicholas developed a liquidity fund to protect the Bank against catastrophic events such as those witnessed in 2007-8. After the Quebec Referendum in 1995, he moved to Bank of America to run the London proprietary portfolios.
Nicholas retired from the City in 2001 and decided to work with small technology companies to help them achieve their ambitions. Given the lack of support from the banks towards growing SMEs, Nicholas is now developing new funding structures to enable SMEs to manage their funding gaps.
Outside of work, Nicholas enjoys politics (especially debating it over a pint!), watching the rugby and entertaining his grandson.
Dr Will Brooks
Senior Scientist
Dr Will Brooks has a background in chemistry and electronic materials, receiving his B.Sc (Hons) degree in Chemistry from the University of Wales, Bangor. Will obtained a PhD in Electronic Engineering from Bangor University, studying spatially resolved performance characteristics of thin-film CdTe photovoltaic solar cells. Subsequently, he took up a postdoctoral position at the Centre for Solar Energy Research at Glyndwr University. Here, he worked as a Research Assistant on a Welsh Government Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) Collaborative Industrial Research Project (CIRP).
Will joined IS-Instruments in 2016 in the role of Senior Scientist. His responsibilities include Raman spectrometer and optical probe research and development, system assembly and testing. He has been heavily involved in multiple large-scale and significant projects. These include stand-off Raman applications for Nuclear Decommissioning, Raman-based process monitoring in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. He has also worked to develop a gas-phase Raman instrument using innovative hollow-core fibre guides. Throughout his role, Will uses technology innovation to take ideas from concept, through the technology readiness levels, to product.
Jessica Gabb MCHEM
Business Development Manager
Jessica Gabb joined IS-Instruments in April 2021 as Business Development Manager and Project Manager. Her responsibilities include the promotional growth of the company, raising the profile of ISI at events, and supporting our engineers throughout their research projects. Additionally, Jessica is our Health & Safety Officer and oversees our ISO 9001 certification.
Jessica has a background in Chemistry and Nuclear power, receiving her MChem (Hons) degree in Chemistry in 2015 from Cardiff University. She then entered a graduate scheme in the nuclear power sector, working on the lifetime of the existing fleet. Jessica also worked on the chemical designs of nuclear new-build before moving into business development and account management.
Charles Warren
Research Scientist
Charles joined IS-Instruments in 2018 as a Research Scientist. His responsibilities include mathematical modelling, building and designing optical systems and hardware, as well as the development of spectroscopy software and data analysis software. Charles has enjoyed working on a wide range of projects, from the Nuclear industry to the Biopharmaceutical sector.
Charles completed a Master’s Degree in Physics at the University of Exeter in 2014. His particular area of research related to Raman spectroscopy of graphene, a revolutionary new material with potential applications in a wide range of industries and technologies. During his work on graphene, he gained experience in cleanroom protocols and optical lithography. After his degree, Charles went on to complete a PGCE at the University of Exeter and achieve a teaching scholarship from the Institute of Physics. He spent some time as a science teacher specialising in physics before returning to research and development.
Sarah Marsh-Collings
Information Dissemination Officer
Sarah Marsh-Collings was brought on board in 2019 to help raise our profile, highlight the R&D advances taking place and their significance across multiple industries. Sarah gained a BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences from the Open University whilst pursuing a career in Communications. Consequenrly, she is able to communicate complex, novel, and innovative technologies clearly to a wider audience. This brings valuable visibility to the research and the commercial solutions it enables.
Alex Poppe MPHYS
Software Engineer
Alex Poppe graduated from the University of Kent in 2019 with an Integrated Masters (1st Class Hons) in Physics. In 2024, he completed a PhD in applied machine learning in physics.
During the course of his PhD, Alex has collaborated on projects with researchers at the University of Kent and the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. In the latter case, his work in the area of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) furthered the understanding of light-induced interactions between individual molecules and metallic surfaces to facilitate improvements to industrial catalysts. These are crucial components in pharmaceutics and other chemical industries. Alex is applying his machine learning skills to help us solve challenges for our clients in novel ways.
Dr Rhea Sam
Senior Scientist
Dr Rhea Sam joined ISI in 2023, having gained an MSc in Photonics from the Cochin University of Science and Technology before completing her PhD in Applied Physics from Osaka University. While completing her doctorate, she was involved in developing optical instrumentation for tip-enhanced ultra-low-frequency Raman microscopes. She also worked on the synthesis and characterisation of 2D nanomaterials.
Here at ISI, Rhea works primarily on developing our gas Raman spectrometer with its patented microstructured hollow core fibre technology. Additionally, she is involved with the assembly and testing of Raman spectrometers and probes and works on sample and data analysis.
