Scientists at the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have hosted the first silicon photonics conference by the ORC鈥檚 Silicon Photonics group.
Professor Graham Reed and his team moved to the University of Southampton in April 2012 and the UK Silicon Photonics conference is the first event on their specialist research area to be delivered by Professor Reed鈥檚 team and it has been hailed a great success.
The conference, held on 12 November, was associated with a large Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant entitled 鈥橴K Silicon Photonics鈥� (UKSP), led by Professor Reed and based around a consortium including the universities of St Andrews, Leeds, Warwick, Heriot Watt and McMaster (Canada), as well as industry partner PLX. Key speakers included Professor Lionel Kimerling from MIT, Professor Roel Baets from Gent, Professor聽 Mike Wale from Oclaro, Mark Thomson from Bristol and Professor David Richardson of the ORC, as well as consortium speakers. The conference was attended by some 120 delegates from high profile academic and industry partners.
Professor Reed said:聽 鈥淚 have been inundated by positive comments about the event.聽 We had an excellent set of presentations from renowned international experts, as well as an opportunity to showcase some of the results of the UKSP project. We were also able to show the delegates working silicon photonics devices and a high-speed silicon photonics transmission link in our laboratories.聽
鈥淢oving my group to Southampton has enabled us to be extremely productive, because we have excellent fabrication facilities on site and this was key in enabling us to achieve so much within the project.聽 My feeling is that we have integrated extremely well with our new colleagues and have demonstrated both the strength of the Silicon Photonics Group, as well as the excellent opportunities that working at Southampton offers.鈥�
Professor Reed was recently awarded the Crompton Medal for Energy at this year鈥檚 IET Achievement Awards.
His pioneering research spans over a 25-year period and he is responsible for initiating research in the field of silicon photonics within the UK.聽 Professor Reed鈥檚 student, Dr Andrew Rickman, founded Bookham Technology Plc (now Oclaro) and worked on Professor Reed鈥檚 ideas of establishing a silicon guided wave technology, subsequently adopted as the core business of Bookham, the first silicon photonics company in the world.