Merv, as he was known to all, first came to Bristol in the 80’s as a Post-Doc in the world-famous Polymer Physics group in the H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory led by Professor Andrew Keller FRS. Funding then was as precarious as it is today, and from there he moved to the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, then part of the Agricultural and Food Research Council (shortly to become the BBSRC), where, as a Senior Scientific Officer in a brief flirtation with the Scientific Civil Service, he led a group carrying out pioneering X-ray diffraction studies on starch. This was a short sojourn before what became the defining period of his career. When Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy burst onto the scene, Merv was quick to realise that it was a game changer in how we could image biological molecules, cells, and surfaces at a resolution on a par or better than electron microscopy, but crucially in their natural, uncoated state and without need for a vacuum.
More than the acuity to spot an opportunity, this also showed Merv at his innovative and mercurial best, as success in this emerging field required someone with a rare combination of enthusiasm, humility, drive and zest for innovation – his sheer joy of the scientific chase attracted so many collaborators, created such a buzz of excitement and reminded us all what science should be like. Merv returned to Bristol Physics in 1989 to take up a lectureship, and quickly set about building the leading UK group for SPM, and putting Bristol on the international map in this blossoming field.
The Interdicisplinary Research Centre in Nanotechnology, an £18 M EPSRC-funded collaboration between Bristol, Cambridge and UCL, put Bristol front and centre in an emergent research area. Merv’s leadership led directly to the establishment and construction of the interdisciplinary Nanoscience and Quantum Information building (NSQI) adjoining Physics at Bristol, and it was his vision and dedication through endless design meetings that ensured it was the quietest and lowest-vibration scientific building in the world when it opened in 2009 providing an ideal interdisciplinary environment for researchers across the University of Bristol and beyond. The building simply would not have come into existence without Merv’s energy and drive. It displays the features that bear the fingerprint of a playful scientist: the Fibonacci sequence embedded in the fascia of the building on Tyndall Avenue, and the representations of the Caffeine molecule in coloured lights in the atrium that bear witness to the fuel that kept Merv going. One of Merv’s passions was the work of the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and the conjunction of architecture and nanoscience was typical of Merv: to see meaning and purpose in so many apparently disconnected fields, and to seek out the new opportunities at the interfaces.
The restless spirit that drove Merv to tackle all kinds of biophysical challenges found expression in the start-up company, Infinitesima. This was a remarkable episode when Merv founded the company in the early 2000s with five others in the research group. Remarkable because he was so inclusive and saw it as a truly joint venture of the team, and remarkable because it worked! Infinitesima prospers today, employing two hundred people, attracting millions in investment, selling products all around the world –and providing successive REF impact case studies! It is an ongoing testament to Merv’s creativity.
Mery played his part in transforming graduate training at Bristol and the UK, in his role as co-Principal of the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials (BCFN), a ground-breaking Centre for Doctoral Training that was established in 2008 and grew to train more than 100 PhD students across 15 different Bristol departments, forging new partnerships internationally and with industry. The highly innovative approach to PhD training was inspired by Merv’s unique mindset and spirit of scientific adventure, and the BCFN rapidly became one of the leading CDTs in the country, directly shaping successive generations of CDTs in Bristol and helping to secure support for several hundreds of PhD students.
In 2011 Merv was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. The citation begins: ‘Mervyn Miles is distinguished for the development of a number of revolutionary new techniques of scanning-probe microscopy and demonstrating their potential for breaking into new areas of research in the study of biomolecular and polymer systems.’ Merv served on numerous RS committees bringing valuable experience on interdisciplinary matters and, importantly his infectious sense of humour! He was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 2019.
Merv inspired loyalty, affection and dedication amongst all who came into contact with him– one simply wanted to do the best that you could because you liked him and enjoyed immensely the experience of working with him. His science was an expression of his joy and passion for life. His approach to supervision was one of trust and humility - he would never tell a student what to do, even when he knew what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. He did this because he wanted students to be able to own their ideas, act upon them, and then be able to look back and truly say “I did that”. It was high-risk, but it built confidence, it built trust, it built a community.
Our thoughts are with Merv’s wife Elizabeth and sons John and Griff.