Co-founded by a cross departmental academic team, the  GJ Russell Facility specialises in training and research support for internal users and undertakes a wide range of supportive external requests. Industrial and external clients can contact the facility for routine characterisation, R&D, student projects, or regular access to electron microscopes.

The facility is named after Dr. Graham Russell, the first experimental officer for Electron Microscopy in Durham, who played a pivotal role in establishing a strong user base. Dr. Russell was educated at the Department of Physics, Portsmouth Polytechnic, U.K., where he earned a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Applied Physics in 1967 and an M.Phil. in 1969 with a thesis on electron microscopy studies of radiation damage in lithium fluoride. He later served as an Experimental Officer, conducting research in collaboration with the Materials Development Division at A.E.R.E. Harwell and managing an electron microscope suite shared by the Departments of Physics and Biological Sciences. In 1973, he became a Senior Experimental Officer in the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics at the University of Durham, where he earned his Ph.D. for his work on the defect structure of II–VI crystals. Dr. Russell continued his career as an electron microscopist, supervising a research group focused on the growth and properties of II-VI semiconducting crystals, and has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of electron microscopy, crystal growth, and diffraction.