This month, IS-Instruments celebrates fifteen years since its launch.
In 2010, Dr Michael Foster and Dr Jonathan Storey launched IS-Instruments dedicated to developing compact spectrographic and remote sensing technologies. Shortly afterwards, they were joined by Nicholas Bantin.
Michael and Jon both have space science backgrounds. Michael has worked on space LIDAR projects, including designing filtering solutions for EarthCARE, ADM (Aeolus) and the Ascope missions. Before launching ISI, Jon worked on the highest specification optical filter and 3D landing LIDARs for the European Space Agency. Nicholas is a former investment banker who worked in the City of London for over 30 years with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of America. Together, they’re dedicated to taking the technologies developed for space and bringing them to resolve some of the most significant industrial and environmental challenges here on Earth.
“The first three months were pretty miserable,” laments Jon, recalling the struggle of getting a start-up off the ground. “We went through all the stresses all small businesses do when three guys have a great idea and decide to act on it! But, not long after launching, we won new TSB contracts to develop a novel integrating probe for whole tablet Raman spectrometry, a transmission Raman instrument with a spatially resolved Fourier Transform Spectrometer and manufacture a new dust detection LIDAR, and we were off. Since then, we’ve developed an innovative range of high-throughput spectrometers, a compact deep UV Raman system, Odin, now trademarked, a patented gas Raman system, and we’ve achieved ISO9001 accreditation. ”
Over the intervening years, there have been many varied and interesting projects in a range of industries.
Nicholas Bantin said, “Many sectors are experiencing fundamental challenges in how they operate or are inherent to their industry. We’ve worked at Sellafield in Nuclear Decommissioning, helping to make the process cheaper, faster and safer by removing human operators from the equation. We’ve worked on spectroscopic detection of nickel sulphide inclusions in glass manufacturing and the distribution of slip composition in ceramics. Other projects include solutions for the Oil & Gas sector. Currently, our instruments are being used to develop earlier diagnostics for bowel cancer, to identify biomarkers in serum for dementia, and our most recent success, our patented gas Raman system measuring tritium as part of GRADE, a project under the UKAEA Fusion Industry Programme.”
Reflecting on the changes the company has seen over the last decade and a half, Michael commented, “We’ve had the opportunity to feed back into the science community, by joining SEPnet and giving physics and maths students real-world experience. Our permanent team has grown significantly: we now have thirteen staff members, and business is doing well. We’ve moved into much larger premises and had purpose-built workshops and laboratories built, and an open plan office with room for our team to continue to grow. Our first Christmas party was at a pub, and Jon, Nick, and I were sitting there, and all we could afford was lasagna. I decided then and there that I was determined to get to a point where we could afford to take our team to Chapter One in Locksbottom for Christmas dinner, and tell them they could drink champagne all night if they wanted to. In 2024, that’s exactly what we did. Here’s to the next fifteen years!”
The milestone was celebrated with an afternoon drinks and nibbles party in the office, inviting partners and children (most of whom weren’t around when we launched!) and then a meal at our local Indian restaurant just off Tonbridge High Street.
