Brian Keith Tanner

Brian Keith Tanner CPhys, FRSA, FInstP, FHEA is a British physicist, currently Emeritus Professor of Physics and former Dean of Knowledge Transfer at Durham University.

Early life Brian Tanner grew up in Northamptonshire, attending Wellingborough Grammar School. He studied undergraduate physics at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he went on to graduate with a DPhil in 1971 on 'X-ray diffraction topography; methods and applications'.

Career Tanner is best known for research and business applications of X-ray diffraction topography. In 1978 he co-founded Bede Scientific Instruments Ltd, since 2008 owned by Jordan Valley Semiconductors.

Professor Tanner was the first Director of the North East Centre for Science Enterprise, and served as chief scientific advisor of the North East Technology Park (NETPark) and chaired the County Durham Economic Partnership.

Awards and honours Tanner is a Chartered Physicist, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts Jointly awarded the 2005 Barrett Award of the International Center for Diffraction Data. Awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2012 for his work in promoting enterprise and business in the North East. and currently secretary of the Cobweb Orchestra, about which she published a history in 2013. He has two sons: Rob is a teacher and Director of Cross-Curricular Learning at St Albans School and Tom is a climate change academic at SOAS University of London.