The future of photonics: sensors and quantum technologies

Dame Sue Ion GBE FRS FREng is Hon President of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear. She was previously Chairman of the UK Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board (NIRAB). She represents the UK on a number of international review and oversight committees for the nuclear sector including the Euratom Science and Technology Committee which she chaired until late 2018. She was the only non-US member of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee on which she has served from 2005-2020.She currently serves as a member of the Office of Nuclear Regulation Independent Advisory Panel.

Sue spent 27 years with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) rising to the position of Chief Technology Officer in 1992, a post she held until 2006 when she assumed a number of mainly voluntary roles in Science and Engineering, including membership of the UK Council for Science and Technology and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). She was Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2002-2008 and chaired its MacRobert Committee 2013-2019. Sue was Deputy Chair of the Board of the University of Manchester until September 2018 and currently serves on the Board of the University of Central Lancashire.

Her core expertise is in materials science and engineering associated with the nuclear sector. Sue is a member of the Chief Scientific Advisor for Wales’s Science and Innovation Advisory Council. She has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials at Imperial College since 2006, holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester and is now Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee.

Chris Dorman is Vice President and General Manager at Coherent Inc., a global leader in lasers, photonic components and tools. Based in the Glasgow facility, he joined Coherent in 2002 as a Product Line Manager and has held various Business Management positions. He has an MA in Physics from Oxford University and a PhD in Lasers and Quantum Physics from Imperial College, London. He is currently Chair of the UK Photonics Leadership Group, Chair of Photonics Scotland (formerly the Scottish Optoelectronics Organisation), serves on the Technology Advisory Group of Scottish Enterprise, is a visiting Professor to the University of Strathclyde and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He was awarded an OBE for services to Photonic and Laser Technology and Exports in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 2019.

Professor Sheila Rowan is the Chair of Natural Philosophy and since 2009, Director of the Institute for Gravitational Research in the University of Glasgow in the UK. She received her BSc (1991) and PhD (1995) in the field of gravitational wave instrumentation from the University of Glasgow, and subsequently held research positions split between Stanford University and Glasgow before returning full time to a Faculty position in Glasgow in 2003. She was awarded a Leverhulme Prize for Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2005, elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008 and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2018. She received the Hoyle Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics in 2016 in recognition of her pioneering research on aspects of the technology of gravitational wave observatories. She is currently President Elect of the UK Institute of Physics.

Anna C Peacock is a Professor of Photonics within the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton. She obtained her BSc and MSc in Physics from The University of Auckland (New Zealand) before moving to the ORC to undertake a PhD in Nonlinear Fibre Optics. She was subsequently awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship in recognition of her pioneering work on fiberised semiconductor devices. Anna now heads the Nonlinear Semiconductor Photonics group, where the focus of her research is on the design and development of novel semiconductor waveguides. She is a fellow of The Optical Society (FOSA), the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and currently holds an EPSRC Research Fellowship to develop integrated nonlinear silicon photonic solutions.

Dr Drew Nelson OBE FREng has almost 40 years' experience in the semiconductor industry. Following a PhD in Semiconductor Physics, he led the group at BT Research Labs group responsible for the development of advanced optoelectronic devices for optical fibre communications, which today forms the core photonic devices powering the global internet. He co-founded EPI in 1988 (which became IQE in 1999) and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of IQE Plc in April 1999. IQE is now the leading global supplier of advanced semiconductor wafers, with 11 operations internationally.

Dr Nelson holds several Non-Executive Directorship appointments, and served on numerous Government and Industry bodies. He received an OBE in 2001 for services to the Electronics Industry, the Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004, and has been recognised by numerous other achievement awards. He served as the UK member of the High Level Group appointed by the EC to oversee the implementation of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) throughout Europe. Most recently he conceived and led the establishment and growth of the Compound Semiconductor Cluster in South Wales, now employing over 1500 people and gaining widespread international recognition as a global centre for Compound Semiconductor manufacturing and R&D.

Heba is the CEO and founder of UtterBerry Ltd. UtterBerry is a patented intelligent wireless sensor system which works on extremely low power. Weighing less than 15 grams, UtterBerry sensors are the smallest and lightest wireless sensors in the world and the first to employ artificial intelligence.

Heba studied electronics and computer engineering. Upon graduation she worked as a CPU engineer for ARM, and was an integral designer of the ARM Cortex processors found in virtually all mobile phones today. Heba returned to Cambridge for her PhD, during which she founded UtterBerry. Five years on Heba has patents in fields from manufacturing and engineering to medicine and sensing. Heba's awards include the CIOB Digital Innovation Award (2014), the Construction Excellence National Award for Innovation (2015) and two NCE Ground Engineering awards. Heba was awarded an OBE for her contributions to technology, innovation and STEM education 2018.

Martin Dawson is professor and director of research at the University of Strathclyde’s Institute of Photonics, which he helped establish almost 25 years ago. Since 2012 he has also been the inaugural Head of the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (Fraunhofer CAP) in Glasgow. Martin has contributed broadly to laser and semiconductor research including ultrafast lasers, optically-pumped semiconductor lasers, diamond photonics and micro-LEDs, the latter of which is now emerging globally as a new form of commercial display technology. He holds fellowships of the IEEE, OSA, Institute of Physics and Royal Society of Edinburgh, and he has been awarded the Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize of the IOP and the Aron Kressel Award of the IEEE.

Araceli Venegas-Gomez is the recipient of The Optical Society Milton and Rosalind Chang Pivoting Fellowship to become a ‘global ambassador’ for quantum technologies. She is a knowledgeable and fully dedicated quantum physicist (currently finishing her PhD at the University of Strathclyde), and former aerospace engineer. Araceli is contributing to the public and business awareness of physics and quantum technologies, providing a bridge between research and industry. To enable this, she has recently founded QURECA, with the aim to support business and institutions to be part of the quantum revolution.

After undergraduate studies at St Andrews and Dundee Universities, Loyd McKnight received his PhD in 2012 from the Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, on the topic of waveguide devices for quantum technologies. After graduation, he joined the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP) as one of the first research staff members. Loyd now holds a senior researcher position and leads the quantum technology theme area at Fraunhofer CAP which, to date, includes more than 30 distinct projects with over 25 different industry partners.

Richard Murray is business development manager for Teledyne e2v, part of the Teledyne group of technologies: a $2.9Bn Engineering conglomerate with a significant presence in the global emerging quantum technologies landscape.

Richard helps Teledyne transition quantum from research into a new business unit, and as part of that is deputy project lead for the £8.5m Innovate UK funded project 'Gravity Pioneer'. Working across 13 companies and universities, this will demonstrate a quantum gravity sensor with the ability to detect buried tunnels, sink holes, voids and oil deposits.

Before Teledyne e2v, Richard was Innovation lead for Quantum Technologies at Innovate UK, and was behind the set-up of the UK National quantum technologies programme, and, as co-author of the quantum manifesto, the European Flagship.

Before that, Richard was a science and technical product consultant for TTP and has a PhD in Quantum cold atom physics from the University of Southampton.

Gerd Leuchs is Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, and an adjunct professor within the physics department of the University of Ottawa. His scientific work includes quantum noise reduced and entangled light beams, solitons in optical fibres, and quantum communication protocols. In 2018 Gerd Leuchs won an advanced grant from the European Research Council, a mega-grant of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation and also the Julius-von-Haast Fellowship award from the Royal Society of New Zealand. He is member of a number of advisory boards for quantum technology application and innovation in Germany and abroad.

Dr Drew Nelson OBE FREng has almost 40 years' experience in the semiconductor industry. Following a PhD in Semiconductor Physics, he led the group at BT Research Labs group responsible for the development of advanced optoelectronic devices for optical fibre communications, which today forms the core photonic devices powering the global internet. He co-founded EPI in 1988 (which became IQE in 1999) and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of IQE Plc in April 1999. IQE is now the leading global supplier of advanced semiconductor wafers, with 11 operations internationally.

Dr Nelson holds several Non-Executive Directorship appointments, and served on numerous Government and Industry bodies. He received an OBE in 2001 for services to the Electronics Industry, the Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004, and has been recognised by numerous other achievement awards. He served as the UK member of the High Level Group appointed by the EC to oversee the implementation of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) throughout Europe. Most recently he conceived and led the establishment and growth of the Compound Semiconductor Cluster in South Wales, now employing over 1500 people and gaining widespread international recognition as a global centre for Compound Semiconductor manufacturing and R&D.

Professor Diana Huffaker is the Welsh Government Sêr Cymru Chair in Advanced Engineering and Materials and Scientific Director of the Institute of Compound Semiconductors at Cardiff University. Her expertise spans nanostructures and materials, optoelectronics, sensors, quantum technology and clean energy platforms. Diana retains Adjunct Professor status at UCLA, where she directs the Integrated Nanomaterials Laboratory at the California Nanosystems Institute. Diana has co-authored over 300 publications (h-index=55), and has over 20 disclosures and provisional patents with 8 full patents. She founded two companies and is planning two more in Wales. In recognition, she has gained awards from internationally recognised societies including fellow of the Humboldt society, Learned Society of Wales, Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers and Optical Society of America.  She is an active leader in the international technical community with Review, Editorial and Advisory responsibilities within EPSRC, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Science Foundation Ireland and Science Advisory Council Wales. She is passionate about all-gender STEM education, especially associated with entrepreneurialism and "innovation for all".

Professor Sir David Neil Payne CBE FRS FREng is Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, UK. His work has had a great impact on telecommunications and laser technology over the last forty years. The vast transmission capacity of today's internet results directly from the erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) invented by David and his team in the 1980s. His pioneering work in fibre fabrication in the 70s resulted in almost all of the special fibres in use today including fibre lasers.

With US funding, he led the team that broke the kilowatt barrier for fibre laser output to international acclaim and now holds many other fibre laser performance records. He has published over 650 Conference and Journal papers.

As an entrepreneur, David's activities have led to a cluster of 11 photonics spin out companies in and around Southampton. He founded SPI Lasers PLC, which was acquired by the Trumpf Corporation of Germany. He is an Emeritus Chairman of the Marconi Society and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Engineering. David is a fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Peter Knight is Senior Research Investigator at Imperial College. He retired in 2010 as Deputy Rector (Research) at Imperial. He was knighted in 2005 for his work in optical physics. Knight was the 2004 President of the Optical Society of America and 2011-2013 President of the Institute of Physics. He is Editor of Contemporary Physics, Chair of the UK National Quantum Technology Programme Strategy Advisory Board, chairs the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory, was until 2010 chair of the UK Defence Scientific Advisory Council and remains a UK Government science advisor. His research centres on quantum optics and quantum technology. He has won the Thomas Young Medal and the Glazebrook Medal of the Institute of Physics, the Ives Medal and the Walther Medal and Prize of the OSA, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Faraday Prize of the IET.

Peter Knight is Senior Research Investigator at Imperial College. He retired in 2010 as Deputy Rector (Research) at Imperial. He was knighted in 2005 for his work in optical physics. Knight was the 2004 President of the Optical Society of America and 2011-2013 President of the Institute of Physics. He is Editor of Contemporary Physics, Chair of the UK National Quantum Technology Programme Strategy Advisory Board, chairs the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory, was until 2010 chair of the UK Defence Scientific Advisory Council and remains a UK Government science advisor. His research centres on quantum optics and quantum technology. He has won the Thomas Young Medal and the Glazebrook Medal of the Institute of Physics, the Ives Medal and the Walther Medal and Prize of the OSA, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Faraday Prize of the IET.