Speaker biography
Martin Dawson FRS is Distinguished Professor and Director of Research at the University of Strathclyde’s Institute of Photonics, which he helped establish 27 years ago. He is also, since 2012, the inaugural Head and Scientific Director of the UK’s first Fraunhofer centre, the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics. Together, these organisations employ over 100 staff and PhD/EngD students and have to date had funded collaborations with over 150 companies. Professor Dawson has contributed extensively to research in optoelectronics and photonics, including micro-LED display technology and optically pumped and ultrafast lasers. He holds fellowships of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the IEEE, Optica/OSA and the Institute of Physics and he has received several awards for his work, including the Gabor Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics, the Aron Kressel Award of the IEEE Photonics Society, the Nick Holonyak Jr Award of Optica/OSA and the Global Solid State Lighting Award of Outstanding Achievement from the International Solid State Lighting Alliance (ISA).
Lecture abstract
Fraunhofer is the largest applications-oriented research organisation in Europe and it has pioneered a very distinctive and highly successful approach to accelerating technological innovation. Ten years ago, we had the opportunity to create the first Fraunhofer research centre in the UK, the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (Fraunhofer CAP). This presentation will focus on how we established Fraunhofer CAP based on a vision of the development and application of laser-based instrumentation. The talk will illustrate important technological capabilities that are resulting from the Centre’s research, including remote chemical and environmental sensing and quantum technologies, and offer speculation on future developments. We will weave into this a discussion of how Fraunhofer really operates in practise, as an independent research and technology organisation interfacing between university and industry.”
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