Jas Pal Badyal was awarded BA (1985) and PhD (1988) degrees from Cambridge University; where he subsequently held a King’s College Fellowship and the Oppenheimer Fellowship.  In 1989 he moved to Durham University to take up a lectureship and was promoted to Full Professor in 1996.   

He is internationally recognized for his pioneering research on the functionalization of solid surfaces and deposition of functional nanolayers.  Jas Pal has invented a wide range of novel surfaces for technological and societal applications. These have been underpinned by the investigation of fundamental mechanisms and scale-up.  Examples include: antibacterial, fog harvesting, catalysis, non-fouling, optochiral switches, filtration, biochips, super-repellency, and nano-actuation.