Professor Miles Padgett OBE FRS

Miles Padgett is a Royal Society Research Professor and also holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow.

His research team covers all things optical, from the basic ways in which light behaves as it pushes and twists the world around us, to the application of new optical techniques in imaging and sensing. They are currently using the classical and quantum properties of light to explore: the laws of quantum physics in accelerating frames, microscopes that see through noise, shaped light that overcomes diffraction-limited resolution and endoscopes the width of a human hair. The team's papers and article level metrics are found here.

In 2025 his group launched a spin out company, 'MicroEndo', producing endoscope the thickness of a single human hair. We are exploring applications and undertaking trials for industrial inspection.

He is a Fellow both of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society (the UK's national academy), in addition to subject specialist societies. He has won various national and international prizes (see below) including, in 2019, the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society and in 2021 the Quantum Electronics and Optics Prize of the European Physical Society. Every year since 2019 he has been identified by Web of Science as a globally highly-cited researcher.

He was the Principal Investigator of QuantIC (2014 - 2025), the UK's Centre of excellence in quantum-enhanced imaging, bringing together eight UK universities and more than 40 industry partners. He is now Science co-Director of QuSIT (2024 -), the UK's Centre of excellence in quantum-enhanced sensing imaging and timing - with a similar structure. This UK approach has transformed the global landscape in how emerging technologies can transition to industrial use.

In 2023 he was the Interim Executive Chair EPSRC where he successfully led an increase to the number of funded Centres for Doctoral Training by 50% (+≈1500 students) through building stronger ties across UKRI and the network of Government Chief Scientists.

During his 5-year term as Vice-Principal for Research at the University of Glasgow (2014-19) he and his colleagues championed how an improved research culture was not an alternative to excellence but rather what would allow more of us to excel, transforming the University's REF outputs performance to be upper quartile in the Russell Group. He is now co-chair of the UK Committee on Research Integrity.

For the UK REF 2021 exercise, the national assessment of research and impact quality, he was the Chair of the Physics Panel. He was a member of EPSRC Council (2022-23) and SPIE Board of Directors (2023-25). He is currently a member of Council of the Royal Society (2026-). For REF 2029 he is an advisor on main panel B.

Miles celebrates the academic and post-academic careers of his former group members, the most recent of which are featured  here.