Executive Committee
Prof. Simon Fleming
Prof. Simon Fleming received his PhD degree from Leeds University, UK. Subsequently as a Senior Research Fellow at BT Labs, UK he researched fibre amplifiers and lasers. From 1996 to 2008 he headed the Optical Fibre Technology Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research includes optical nonlinearity in silica and specialty fibre and fibre devices. He has authored ~230 publications, including several patents, and has been involved in organising ~30 conferences, including as General and Technical Program Chairs. He is a Professor in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the IET
Prof. Martijn De Sterke
Martijn de Sterke is a theoretical physicist, whose approach to his research is characterized by actively seeking collaborations with experimentalists. He has authored papers in the fields of optics and photonics, solid state physics, and acoustics, and these papers have appeared both in the physics and in the engineering literature.
In optics he has worked on a variety of problems in the areas of nonlinear optics (soliton physics, nonlinear propagation, numerical methods, optical frequency conversion, parametric amplification), wave propagation in random media, guided-wave optics, coupling of co- and contra-propagating modes in one-dimensional periodic media, photonic crystals, microstructured optical fibres, self-written gratings and waveguides, and optical Bloch oscillations.
Highlights of his publication record include: development of the theory of grating solitons, including the coupling of these solitons, the nonlinear theory of deep gratings; first experimental verification of these solitons, and the definitive experimental paper; definitive paper on the theory of Hill gratings; theory and first observation of self-writing of waveguides in glass; first calculation of local density of states in realistic photonic crystals for determining radiation dynamics; first study of birefringence, structural losses and the nature of modal cut-offs in microstructured optical fibres; first calculation of the modes of microstructured optical fibres with high-index inclusions; first general theory of frequency conversion in two-dimensionally poled structures, and the general optimization of these poling patterns; first general theory of dynamic localization in semiconductors under an applied uniform AC fields; and proposal and experimental verification of grating-dispersion inverted interference devices.
Prof. Joss Bland-Hawthorn
Joss Bland-Hawthorn is the most recent recipient of a Federation Fellowship at the University of Sydney where he holds a chair in Physics.
Joss has over 200 research papers, and is world renowned for his breakthroughs in astrophysics and in instrumentation. In 1986, he obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the Royal Greenwich Observatory prior to taking up faculty appointments in Hawaii and Texas.
In 1993, he moved to the Anglo-Australian Observatory where he was Head of a highly successful group that pioneered astronomical concepts with names like Nod & Shuffle, Dazle, Starbugs, Honeycomb, and so on. Joss has carried out pioneering work on tunable filters, gratings and interplanetary laser communications.
In 2002, he proposed the new field of astrophotonics that sits at the interface of astronomy and photonics – in Feb 2009, this field was featured in the Focus Issue of Optics Express.
Joss is a recipient of the 2008 Muhlmann Award for experimental astronomy; he is also a recipient of the inaugural 2008 Group Achievement Award from the Royal Astronomical Society, London for his role in the highly acclaimed 2dF Galaxy Redshift survey that first mapped the 3D structure of the Universe.
Prof. Robert Minasian
Robert A. Minasian received the B.E. degree from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, the MSc degree from the University of London, University College, London, U.K., and the PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
He is currently a Chair Professor with the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia. In addition, he is the Director of the Fibre-optics and Photonics Laboratory (FPL), and has also served as the Head of the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney. His research encompasses optical signal processing and telecommunications, and currently centers on photonic signal processing, microwave photonics, broadband optical communications, and optical phased arrays. He has contributed over 281 technical publications in these areas. He has presented numerous invited presentations at international conferences, and has filed several patents. He is an Associate Editor of Optical Fiber Technology.
Professor Minasian is a Fellow of IEEE, and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers, Australia. He has served on the Australian Research Council as a member of the College of Experts. He is a member of the Technical Committee on Microwave Photonics of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S), and has served and is on the program committees for many international IEEE and OSA conferences.
He was the recipient of the ATERB Medal for Outstanding Investigator in Telecommunications, awarded by the Australian Telecommunications and Electronics Research Board.
Tim Schmidt
Tim Schmidt gained his BSc (Hons) from the University of Sydney in 1998 winning the University Medal in theoretical chemistry. He then studied at Churchill College, Cambridge, gaining a PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2001 for work on the femtosecond dynamics of molecules in intense laser field under the supervision of Dr Gareth Roberts. Postoctoral work was performed in the group of Professor John Paul Maier in Basel on the electronic spectroscopy of highly unsaturated hydrocarbons of astrophysical relevance. Tim returned to Australia in 2003 to work at the CSIRO (CTIP, Lindfield) on modelling of the rubsico enzyme. He commenced as a lecturer in the School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney in April 2004, and was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in January 2008. He was the recipient of the Coblentz Award in 2010 and was promoted to Associated Professor in 2011
Shelley Martin
Shelley joined CUDOS in the School of Physics in April 2010 and currently holds the position of Administration Manager. She has extensive professional experience in academic and research management environments, having held positions previously in UNSW, UTS, National ICT Australia and the CRC for Cardiac Technology. Shelley holds a BA, MBA and a graduate qualification from the University of Oxford in Higher Education Management.