Materials scientist Arnab Basu, head of radiation-detection technology developer Kromek, talks to Tushna Commissariat about founding a spin-off, the challenges of COVID-19 and looking to the future.
What fostered your initial interest in physics?
I grew up in Calcutta, India, and did my schooling there. My dad was a materials engineer – a “metallurgist”, in those days – who graduated from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and worked for a British company before ultimately starting his own business back in India. So I grew up in an environment of bold entrepreneurship as my dad built the family business – a materials-processing firm. Science and technology were very much part of my growing up.
Kromek Group plc designs, develops and produces x-ray and gamma-ray imaging and radiation detection products for the medical, CBRNe security, Homeland Security and civil nuclear radiation detection markets.