Director appointed to lead UK/US technology partnership

Strathclyde, Scotland--A leading figure in the UK photonics sector has been named Director of a venture designed to realize that industry's commercial opportunities. The venture, known as SU2P and officially launched last December, involves a partnership between academic institutions in Scotland and California that is aimed at extracting economic impact from their joint research portfolio in photonics and related technologies.

According to a release issued by the University of Strathclyde press office today, Iain Ross has been appointed to lead SU2P. He has more than 30 years' experience in the photonics sector, in senior industry posts, start-ups, and with research pooling initiatives, knowledge exchange and commercialization. Ross has worked closely with industrial and academic partners throughout his career. In a statement he said, “I am delighted to take up this exciting post, based at the University of Strathclyde. I look forward to working with the photonics industry and the university partners both here and in the USA – to deepen the links between them and to deliver on the significant pool of latent opportunities for successful commercialization.”

The SU2P project is funded by Research Councils UK--as part of its Science Bridges awards--Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council. It has won funding worth £1.6 million ($2.4 million) over three years from the Science Bridges awards. The Universities of Strathclyde, St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow, together with Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), are collaborating in the partnership, whose key themes include: industrial collaboration and knowledge exchange; entrepreneurial fellowships for outstanding young researchers; turning research into commercial opportunity; development of an investor network for photonics technology and problem-solving work with industry. The partnership also aims to bolster existing links between universities and businesses in Scotland and the US.

The three-year venture between the six institutions will focus on:

• Biophotonics, including stem cell imaging and neuroscience photonics
• Solar cell devices and characterisation
• Integrated photonics
• Solid-state laser engineering and nonlinear optics
• Photonics sensors, including atom and quantum optic sensors and environmental science and technology

Allister Ferguson, Deputy Principal of the University of Strathclyde with responsibility for research and knowledge exchange, said: "There is a history of successful photonics collaboration between Scottish universities. This venture is enabling us to extend this to our partners in the USA and to cement the links with industry, as well as to enable us to deliver real value from our world-class research."

Coherent Scotland Ltd, M Squared Lasers, Optos plc, SELEX Galileo and Thales Optronics all have been in close discussion with SU2P and have helped shape the program. Dave Wilson, engineering director of SELEX Galileo, based in Edinburgh, commented, “We are delighted to see the appointment of Iain Ross as Director of SU2P, reflecting the long history of lasers in Scotland, back to Ferranti, and we plan to work closely with Scottish and Californian academics to reinforce our world leading laser business.”

The announcement of Mr Ross' appointment comes as SU2P hosts its first annual symposium, at Strathclyde today and tomorrow (22-23 March). The event includes presentation sessions on the program's main research themes, exploration of emerging commercial opportunities in photonics and discussion of innovation in the sector.

Speakers include: Dr Tom Baer, Executive Director of the Stanford Photonics Research Centre; Professor Wilson Sibbett of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews; Alastair Wilson, Director of the Photonics and Plastic Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network in the UK; Professor Colin Cunningham, Director of the UK Extremely Large Telescopes Programme, and Nelson Gray, Chartered Accountant and business angel investor.

For more information visit www.su2p.com