Matthew Edgar

Q: What is your academic and professional background?

I have a PhD from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. Since graduation, I have had a relatively diverse research background, covering astrophysics, quantum optics, computational imaging and more.

My postdoctoral research into advanced imaging technologies enabled me to work collaboratively with many industry partners around the world, including M Squared Lasers in Glasgow, where I joined in 2018. As product owner I worked with a multidisciplinary team to develop advanced laser systems for calibrating the spectrometers on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 5 satellites for monitoring Earth’s climate over the next 20 years.

Having moved from the west coast of Scotland to the east coast and wanting to reduce my commute time to spend more with my children, I started looking for other opportunities closer to home and, fortunately, found the perfect role at iGii, where I joined in 2022.

Q: Can you describe your current role at iGii?

I am Principal Engineer within the Advanced Engineering group – a team of specialist engineers working on advanced technologies and processes for manufacturing and integrating our Gii material.

I also recently became a certified Product Manager. This involved valuable training in evaluating the entire product life cycle from concept to launch and the critical analysis that should be applied at each step of the way to ensure both the product and the company remain on the right path. I apply this skill daily across all aspects of the business and when looking at customer projects to ensure we deliver success.

While I don’t personally speak to customers day-to-day, my team take inputs and direction on production requirements from Sales team and the outputs from customer engagement of our CEO, CTO and COO, and we work in the background to ensure that our equipment and processes can consistently deliver high-quality Gii at scale.

Q: What do you find most exciting about the work you do?

Each week is very different. We’re covering a wide range of topics and applications of Gii and personally really enjoy the challenge of developing new ways to utilise it. I also enjoy that this is a new material we are working with and developing the right manufacturing processes to suit different production lines and customer requirements is an exciting challenge.

Q: How do you collaborate with other teams or departments?

I will typically meet daily with multidisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, product designers and management for technical reviews, project updates and team planning, some of which is scheduled, but equally we will often be responding to new insights and opportunities. We’re a curious group and everyone is doing interesting things, so it’s a highly collaborative environment.

Q: What skills does iGii have across the business that really stand out?

The business gives the team the space to get the best out of themselves. Everyone is encouraged to develop their skills and learn new skills from others or via external training, which shows the company genuinely cares about individuals’ personal growth and development. As a result, we are all highly skilled across a wide range of topics.

We have a huge number of highly qualified academics within the company and giving them the flexibility to do what they do best is where you get true innovation and quality customer support.

Q: What trends or innovations in your field are you most excited about?

The speed at which diagnostics and sensing are becoming part of our day to day lives. Smart wearables, like watches, are very common these days, and while tracking your fitness is interesting, the gamechanger is likely the impact that real-time diagnostics can have on our health. It will be interesting to see how the health service evolves as the population starts tracking more and more health data with more technology readily available, and if we are able to identify influences on our health and how best to respond.

Q: Are there any upcoming projects or goals you’re particularly looking forward to?

The huge strides we’ve made in scaling our technology for Gii manufacturing are really exciting. We’ve built processes and equipment that allow us to make Gii anywhere in the world, including within customers’ own production lines. The next steps are doing this even more efficiently and with even higher precision.