The University of Southampton is launching a large photonics and electronics institute in the UK on Thursday 12 September. The new Zepler Institute is a multidisciplinary research centre that brings together expertise in photonics, advanced materials, quantum technologies and nano-science. The Institute will build on the university’s pioneering discoveries in photonics and electronics that form the backbone of today’s global communications infrastructure.
For decades, researchers at Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre have enabled the development of the physical hardware through fibre-optic technology that laid the foundations of the Internet, while researchers in electronics and computer science are pioneering the new discipline of Web Science to understand and develop the future uses of the World Wide Web.
The Zepler Institute will build on that reputation to provide a collaborative environment for research that will continue to deliver the solutions required to meet the global challenges of the future, from ultra-high bandwidth communications technologies, through bio-photonics for point-of-care diagnostics, to fundamental research into quantum devices and technologies. This effort is led by experts in the university’s physics, quantum light and matter group.
The Zepler Institute is led by Professor Sir David Payne, director of the university’s Optoelectronics Research Centre. Prof. Payne will deliver a special lecture entitled “50 Years of Photonics at the University of Southampton” to mark the occasion and in celebration of his recently awarded Knighthood for services to the photonics field.
The event will also feature a special guest lecture by Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, who is considered to be one of the fathers of the Internet. Vint will be introduced by web pioneer Professor Dame Wendy Hall, dean of physical and applied sciences at the University of Southampton.
Global access to the Internet itself relies on Prof. Payne’s invention of erbium-doped fibre amplifiers, which has made possible the worldwide information superhighway and high-speed telecommunications networks that are so important in the 21st century. Every time you use the Internet, your mobile phone or an ATM, you are using technology developed at Southampton.
The Zepler Institute is named for Professor Eric Ernest Zepler who founded the department of electronics and computer science at University College Southampton (now University of Southampton) in 1947. That was the first in electronics in the UK and possibly in the world.
Prof. Zepler made an outstanding and pioneering contribution to radio receiver development, as well as to the teaching of electronics. Beginning at 3:00 p.m., researchers from across the Zepler Institute will showcase their work and state-of-the-art facilities. Admission to the showcase and the lectures by Prof. Payne and Vint Cerf starting at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 12 September at the Highfield Campus of the University of Southampton is free, although places are limited. The lectures will also be streamed live online at this website.
Photo: Professor Sir David Payne is director of the new Zepler Institute (Copyright: University of Southampton)
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