Southampton Optics Center Director Retires

After 29 years at the University of Southampton -- six of those as deputy director of it Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) -- retiring professor David Hanna gave a valedictory talk during a ceremony held Friday at the university. Hanna joined the university in October 1963 as a research student in the electronics department, was promoted to professor of physics in 1988 and was named deputy director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre in 1989. He has made pioneering contributions in the areas of nonlinear optics and laser physics; his work has made advances in nonlinear optical processes in atomic vapours and gases, optical parametric oscillators and quasiphase-matched nonlinear materials, the university said in a statement. In laser physics, Hanna made innovations in the physics of resonators and mode control and in the development of solid-state lasers, including fiber and waveguide lasers. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and presented over 50 invited/plenary papers at international conferences. He was awarded the Max Born Medal and Prize by the German Physical Society in 1993, the Quantum Electronics Prize of the European Physical Society in 2000 and the Charles Hard Townes Award of the Optical Society of America in 2003, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1998 and is a Fellow at OSA, for which he has been a director-at-large.