Before moving to Cambridge in 1997, Midgley held two postdoctoral research fellowships in the Henry Herbert Wills Physics Laboratory at the University of Bristol.
Midgley is distinguished for many innovations and impressive applications of transmission microscopy, diffraction and spectroscopy, particularly the pioneering development of sub-nanometre-scale electron tomography. His combination of high-angle dark field tomography and spectroscopy revolutionises the 3-d characterisation of materials and heterogeneous catalysts. He has successfully mapped dislocation networks with diffraction contrast tomography. With his world leading position in medium resolution electron holography, he has been able to combine this with tomography in 3-d mapping of electric fields and dopant distributions in semiconductor devices. His brilliant applications of electron diffraction to sub-micron structures, heavy fermion systems and mixed-valentmanganites were important breakthroughs.[1]
^Vincent, R.; Midgley, P. A. (1994). "Double conical beam-rocking system for measurement of integrated electron diffraction intensities". Ultramicroscopy. 53 (3): 271–282. doi:10.1016/0304-3991(94)90039-6.
^Gamarra, D.; Munuera, G.; Hungria, A. B.; Fernandez-Garcia, M.; Conesa, J. C.; Midgley, P. A.; Wang, X. Q.; Hanson, J. C.; Rodriguez, J. A.; Martinez-Arias, A. (2007). "Structure-Activity Relationship in Nanostructured Copper-Ceria-Based Preferential CO Oxidation Catalysts". Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 111 (29): 11026–11038. doi:10.1021/jp072243k.
^Midgley, P. A.; Ward, E. P. W.; Hungría, A. B.; Thomas, J. M. (2007). "Nanotomography in the chemical, biological and materials sciences". Chemical Society Reviews. 36 (9): 1477–94. doi:10.1039/b701569k. PMID17660880.