Prof Sir David N Payne
Chairman of the Marconi Society
Prof Sir David Payne received his BSc, MSc and PhD from the University of Southampton (1963-1974) where he is currently Professor of Photonics and Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and the Zepler Institute. He has published over 650 Conference and Journal papers and is co-inventor on over 40 patents.
Over the last forty years, he has made several key contributions in optical fibre communications and laser technology. His work in fibre fabrication in the 1970s resulted in most of the special fibres used today, including the revolutionary erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) and kilowatt-class fibre lasers for manufacturing and defence. He has received the UK Rank Prize for Optics, the 2001 Mountbatten Medal, the 2004 Kelvin Medal for the application of science to engineering, the 2007 IEEE Photonics Award, the 1991 IEEE/LEOS Tyndall Award, the 1998 Benjamin Franklin Medal for Engineering, and is Laureate of the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize. He is also an Eduard Rhein Laureate and a foreign member of the Norwegian and the Russian Academies of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the UK Royal Society, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, the Optical Society of America, the UK IET and the UK IoP. As an entrepreneur, he founded York Technologies, (now PK Technology Inc.) and SPI Lasers plc (now part of the Trumpf Gruppe). David was knighted in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List for services to Photonics Research and Applications.