Martin D. Dawson

Professor
Martin D. Dawson
FRS FRSE FInstP FIEEE
Born1960
NationalityBritish
Alma materImperial College London
Known forPhotonics
microLEDs VECSELs diamond photonics
Scientific career
FieldsPhotonics
InstitutionsUniversity of Strathclyde
Doctoral advisorProf Wilson Sibbett
Websitewww.photonics.ac.uk

Martin D. Dawson (born 1960) is a British professor of photonics who is research director of the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde and is Head of Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics. He has made pioneering contributions in several applied photonics areas.

Career

Dawson is a physicist known for his work on lasers, microLEDs and compound semiconductors.[1][2] He is Director of Research in the University of Strathclyde's Institute of Photonics, which he helped establish in 1996, and he was also appointed inaugural[3] Head of the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics in 2012. Martin has over 30 years’ experience of applied research gained in academia and industry in the UK and USA and he has been involved in the formation and technical development of a number of spin-out businesses, most recently mLED Ltd.

Dawson is a pioneer in vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers.[4](VECSELS). He has developed optically pumped VECSELS since 1997 and has achieved a number of world firsts in this field, for example the first tunable single frequency operation of such lasers.[5]

In 1996 he foresaw of the importance of gallium nitride (GaN) micro-LEDs, which are now attracting huge worldwide interest because of their potential for displays.[6] His microLED array work has also established their use as a light source for optogenetics applications[7][8] and for Li -Fi and visible light communications.[9] Dawson has been a pioneer of this disruptive technology and has published over 90 journal papers on this area alone. His work led to the formation of a University of Strathclyde spin-out company, mLED Ltd, which was sold to Oculus in 2016.[10][11] He has led the development of GaN micro-LEDs for LiFi since 2010 and his papers have been widely cited. He has a number of world firsts in this field, for example his 2014 paper demonstrating the first application of high-level data encoding techniques to a micro-pixel GaN LED, achieving multi-Gb/s data transmission from the micro-LED.[12]

His advice on useful innovation[13] and quantum technologies[14] has been sought respectively by the UK Parliament's Select Committee for Business, Innovation and Skills and Select Committee for Science and Technology.

Awards and recognition

Dawson was awarded the 2016 Gabor Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics "for his vision and leadership in applied photonics, including pioneering contributions to optically pumped semiconductor lasers, diamond photonics and gallium nitride optical microsystems, and for fostering the international development and commercialisation of these technologies."[15]

Dawson was awarded the 2016 Aron Kessel Award by the IEEE Photonics Society “for broad and sustained contributions to semiconductor opto-electronic engineering, including optically-pumped semiconductor lasers, diamond photonics and galliumnitride microdevices."[16]

Dawson was awarded the 2021 Nick Holonyak Award by the Optical Society, "For wide-ranging contributions to the development and application of III-V semiconductor devices especially including gallium nitride micro-LEDs and optically-pumped semiconductor lasers" and is the first UK-based recipient of the award.[17]

He became a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2000, a Fellow of the OSA in 2006, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007, Fellow of IEEE in 2009 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.

In 2021 Dawson was awarded the Nick Holonyak Jr. Award from OSA for "wide-ranging contributions to the development and application of III-V semiconductor devices especially including gallium nitride micro-LEDs and optically-pumped semiconductor lasers"[18]

Dawson was awarded the Global SSL Award of Outstanding Achievements at the International SSL Alliance General Assembly 2021 for his pioneering work in micro-LED technology, with the citation noting "arguably the most imaginative and extensive contributor worldwide to this research field"[19]

References

  1. ^ "Martin Dawson - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.co.uk.
  2. ^ "Browse by Author or creator - Strathprints". strathprints.strath.ac.uk.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Okhotnikov, Oleg (19 April 2010). Okhotnikov, Oleg G (ed.). Semiconductor Disk Lasers: Physics and Technology. doi:10.1002/9783527630394. ISBN 978-3527409334.
  5. ^ Guina, Mircea; Rantamäki, Antti; Härkönen, A (2017). "Optically pumped VECSELs: Review of technology and progress". Journal of Physics D. 50 (38): 383001. Bibcode:2017JPhD...50L3001G. doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aa7bfd. S2CID 13707050.
  6. ^ "Samsung unveils giant modular TV". BBC News. 9 January 2018.
  7. ^ Dawson, Martin D; Neil, Mark A A (4 April 2008). "Micro-pixellated LEDs for science and instrumentation". Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. 41 (9). IOP Publishing: 090301. doi:10.1088/0022-3727/41/9/090301. ISSN 0022-3727.
  8. ^ Poher, V; Grossman, N; Kennedy, G T; Nikolic, K; Zhang, H X; et al. (4 April 2008). "Micro-LED arrays: a tool for two-dimensional neuron stimulation". Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. 41 (9). IOP Publishing: 094014. Bibcode:2008JPhD...41i4014P. doi:10.1088/0022-3727/41/9/094014. ISSN 0022-3727. S2CID 14519094.
  9. ^ McKendry, Jonathan J. D.; Massoubre, David; Zhang, Shuailong; Rae, Bruce R.; Green, Richard P.; et al. (2012). "Visible-Light Communications Using a CMOS-Controlled Micro-Light- Emitting-Diode Array". Journal of Lightwave Technology. 30 (1). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: 61–67. Bibcode:2012JLwT...30...61M. doi:10.1109/jlt.2011.2175090. hdl:10072/51676. ISSN 0733-8724. S2CID 22496989.
  10. ^ "MLED LIMITED - Filing history (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk.
  11. ^ "Facebook VR firm buys Strathclyde University spin-out - FutureScot". Archived from the original on 5 December 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  12. ^ Tsonev, Dobroslav; Chun, Hyunchae; Rajbhandari, Sujan; McKendry, Jonathan J. D.; Videv, Stefan; Gu, Erdan; Haji, Mohsin; Watson, Scott; Kelly, Anthony E.; Faulkner, Grahame; Dawson, Martin D.; Haas, Harald; O'Brien, Dominic (April 2014). "A 3-Gb/s Single-LED OFDM-Based Wireless VLC Link Using a Gallium Nitride $\mu{\rm LED}$". IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 26 (7): 637–640. doi:10.1109/LPT.2013.2297621. S2CID 1699959.
  13. ^ "Business-University collaboration". UK Parliament.
  14. ^ House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (27 November 2019). "Quantum technologies – Twelfth Report of Session 2017–19" (PDF). United Kingdom House of Commons. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  15. ^ "2016 Gabor Medal and prize of the Institute of Physics". www.iop.org. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  16. ^ "IEEE Photonics Society Congratulates our 2016 Award Recipients" (PDF). IEEE Photonics Society News. Vol. 30, no. 5. October 2016. p. 27.
  17. ^ "The Optical Society Names 17 Recipients for 2021 OSA Awards" (Press release). Optica. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  18. ^ "Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award". OSA.
  19. ^ "International SSL Alliance (ISA) 2021 Awards Unveiling and Award Ceremony". isa-world.org. Retrieved 4 April 2022.