WASHINGTON, August 25, 2008—Paul Baran, Leonard Kleinrock and
Andrew Viterbi have been selected to receive the Nation's highest honor for
science and technology as recipients of the 2007 National Medal of Science or
the 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
The
National Medal of Science, which Kleinrock and Viterbi are to receive, honors
individuals for pioneering scientific research in a range of fields, including
physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering
sciences, that enhances our understanding of the world and leads to innovations
and technologies that give the United States its global economic
edge. The National Science Foundation administers the award, which was
established by Congress in 1959. For more information about the National Medal
of Science visit www.nsf.gov/nsb/awards/nms/medal.htm.
The
National Medal of Technology and Innovation, which Baran will receive,
honors America’s
leading innovators. The award is given to individuals, teams, and/or
companies/divisions for their outstanding contributions to the nation’s
economic, environmental and social well-being through the development and
commercialization of technology products, processes and concepts; technological
innovation; and development of the Nation’s technological manpower. The
Department of Commerce administers the award, which was established by an act
of Congress in 1980. For more information about the National Medal
of Technology and Innovation visit: http://www.uspto.gov/nmti
Fifty years
ago, in response to the surprise Soviet launch of Sputnik, the U.S. military
set up the Advanced Research Projects Agency. It would become the cradle of
connectivity, spawning the era of Google and YouTube, of Amazon and Facebook,
of the Drudge Report and the Obama campaign. Each breakthrough--network
protocols, hypertext, the World Wide Web, the browser--inspired another as
narrow-tied engineers, long-haired hackers, and other visionaries built the
foundations for a world-changing technology. Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb let
the people who made it happen tell the story.
by
Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb July 2008
FIBER
OPTOELECTRONICS PIONEER WINS MARCONI PRIZE
NEW YORK - May 29, 2008-
Professor
David N. Payne, an internationally distinguished research leader in photonics
and Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton
in the UK, has
been named the 2008 Marconi Fellow and prize-winner for his pioneering work in
the field of fiber optoelectronics and fiber telecommunications, the backbone
of modern high speed data transmission.
The Marconi
Society, established in 1975, annually recognizes a living scientist who, like
Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio, shares the determination that
advances in communications and information technology be directed to the
social, economic and cultural improvement of all humanity. Recent winners
have included Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page; MIT Professor Ron
Rivest, co-inventor of RSA encryption; Stanford Professor John Cioffi, the
inventor of modern high speed modems that enabled DSL; and French Professor
Claude Berrou, whose discovery of turbo codes led to important advances in
mobile telephony, satellite and radio communications.
The award
and accompanying $100,000 prize will be presented to Payne at the annual
Marconi Society Award Dinner on September 26, 2008 at the Royal Society in London, UK.
"David
Payne is a true pioneer," said Sir Eric Ash, a Marconi
Fellow. "He has been at the forefront of this rapidly expanding
branch of applied science and engineering since the early
seventies. Of the many and major advances developed by his research
group, the best known is the invention of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier
(EDFA), a type of optical amplifier on which rests the whole basis of our fiber
telecommunications systems. This unique invention overcame the problem of
transmitting data over large distances, a process which even when using highly
transparent fiber, requires some degree of amplification."
Payne, 63, was
born in England, but brought
up in Africa when his father, a Squadron Leader in the wartime Royal Air Force,
immigrated to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to become a Headmaster in
the local school. David completed his primary and secondary education in Zambia and travelled widely through Africa. He returned to England
to attend a university because at that time there was no higher education
available in Zambia.
He worked for a year in steel mills and power stations as a commissioning
engineer for English Electric, before earning a Bachelor of Science in
electrical power engineering at the University
of Southampton in
1967. Despite his love of heavy engineering (to the extent of working all
his university vacations as an on-site engineer), in 1968 he ‘saw the light’
and pursued a Diploma in Quantum Electronics - and in 1976 a PhD in
photonics. He believes however that his stint in heavy engineering helped
to shape his pragmatic and application -focused approach to research, as well
as his entrepreneurial activities.
A professor
of photonics and member of the University of Southampton's faculty for 40 years,
Payne's contributions in the field have had a major impact on areas ranging
from telecommunications and optical sensors to nanophotonics and optical
materials. Many of the special fibers used today resulted from his work,
for example, the fiber used in optical fiber gyroscopes. His invention of
the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) has been widely adopted by the
telecommunications industry and has propelled remarkable Internet growth by
enabling the transmission of vast amounts of data through the use of multiple
optical wavelengths. Payne's group is also credited with the discovery of
the diode-pumped silica fiber laser that is now seeing widespread adoption in
manufacturing and defense.
Payne has
been Director of the ORC, founded in 1989, since 1995, but his history with the
group extends much further into the past. Southampton
began working on the laser in 1961, shortly after its invention. In 1967, they
were one of the first to take on development of silica optical fibers to
advance the development of long-distance light communication, believing its
high transparency and relatively low transmission losses could make the rapid
transmission of large amounts of data practical. Payne, as one of the
first PhD students in the field now known as photonics, was given the seemingly
impossible task of reducing the losses in optical fibers to an acceptable level
for long distance telecommunications.
Says Payne,
“I was incredibly fortunate to be offered the opportunity to work as one of the
first in optical telecommunications. It created the high speed connected
world and its outstanding success has been one of man’s greatest achievements.
Without optical fibers and amplifiers it is hard to imagine the internet we
know today.”
Payne made
many contributions to the fabrication of ultra low-loss optical fibers, most
notably the phosphorus-doped fiber which today forms the basis of many fiber
lasers. As well as detailing many new fiber fabrication techniques and
new ways to characterize the resulting fibers, he is credited with pointing out
the advantages to optical telecommunications of operating at the wavelength of
minimum chromatic dispersion. Together with his work on optical
amplifiers, he has contributed in a major way to the explosive growth of
optical communications, now recognized as a monumental breakthrough.
Payne and
his colleagues invented the first practical optical fiber amplifier, making
long-distance optical communications cost effective since many signals could be
easily sent hundreds of miles without requiring electronic conversion. By
making large amounts of bandwidth available at low cost over very long distances
they fulfilled a major pre-requisite for the formation of the Internet.
Today a single EDFA can amplify up to ten terabits per second of digital
information, enough for nearly a million high-definition television channels.
The early
successes of the Optical Fibre Group at Southampton, due in no small part to
the contributions of Professor Payne, led to the establishment of the
interdisciplinary ORC, now one of the foremost research centers in
optoelectronics and a key player in the communications revolution of the late
20th century.
But Payne
has never been one to rest on his laurels. In 2004, he gained international
acclaim by leading the team that broke the kilowatt barrier for output of a
fiber laser, and subsequently achieved many other fiber laser performance
records.
Payne's
recognition by the Marconi Society extends beyond academia to his achievements
as an entrepreneur, which Marconi Society chairman Robert Lucky calls "an
important component of the Marconi Prize-winner selection criteria. We look for
scientists who, like Marconi himself, have had the vision not only to make
breakthrough discoveries, but to apply these successfully for the benefit of
mankind. David's activities have led to the development of numerous companies,
creating jobs and wealth in the local community and facilitating worldwide
commerce and knowledge sharing. He perfectly fits the profile of a Marconi
Fellow."
In all,
there are ten photonics companies in the Southampton
area who owe their existence to the ORC. Among the most notable companies
Payne has jointly founded are York Technologies
(now part of PK Technology Inc.) and SPI Lasers plc, a leading supplier
of high power fiber lasers located at Hedge End, Southampton, which is
currently listed on AIM at the London Stock Exchange. Payne also
is inventor and co-inventor on over 20 patents and applications.
"Despite his many other achievements, David remains committed to making
the Optoelectronics Research Centre of the University of Southampton one of the
leading research enterprises in the world," said Sir Eric Ash. "His
devotion to the advancement of science and academics is passionate and
admirable."
Among the
numerous awards and honors Payne has received are the top American, European
and Japanese prizes in photonics. He has been honored with the UK Rank Prize
for Optics, the US Tyndall Award (1991), the Benjamin
Franklin Medal for Engineering (1998), the Japan C&C Foundation Award,
an Eduard Rhein Laureate (Germany) and the Mountbatten Medal of the IEE (2001).
In 2004 he was the recipient of the Kelvin Medal of the eight major engineering
institutions for distinction in the application of science to engineering and
in 2007, the IEEE Photonics Award, the first awarded outside the USA. Most
recently he was elected to the RussianAcademy of Sciences as
one of only 240 foreign members.
Payne is a
Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. David and
his wife Vanessa live in Hamble, Southampton. They have two sons, Stuart
(26) and Ross (23). Stuart is pursuing a career in software support,
while Ross plays semi-professional football. With his wife, Payne travels
widely and particularly loves the Far East.
He is an accomplished cook and scours the world on his travels for unusual
ingredients for theme parties. He is also something of an amateur
mechanic, motorcyclist and DIY enthusiast, perhaps a legacy from his heavy
engineering days - as well as being an 'early adopter' of the latest
electronics.
About the Marconi Society
The Marconi Society was established
in 1974 through an endowment set up by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless
telegraphy).
The Marconi Society at ColumbiaUniversity is best known for the Marconi
Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding individual whose scope of work and
influence emulate the principle of "creativity in service to
humanity" that inspired Marconi. Through symposia, conferences,
forums and publications, the Marconi Society promotes awareness of major
innovations in communication theory, technology and applications with
particular attention to understanding how they change and benefit society.
Additional information about the
Marconi Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found at www.marconisociety.org.
Contact: Hatti Hamlin Public Affairs Director The Marconi Society 925.872.4328
