Ugandan Named Marconi Young Scholar

An engineering researcher from the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre was honored at the prestigious Marconi Society Awards in San Diego.

Doctoral student Joseph Kakande, from Uganda, was selected as one of three Marconi Young Scholars in this fourth year of the awards for his cutting-edge work in making communications faster by using all-optical fibers.

Kakande’s work focused on all-optical signal processing as the means of meeting the growth in demand for high-capacity optical communications.

Joseph Kakande, a University of Southampton student from Uganda, was named one of only three Marconi Young Scholars for his cutting-edge work in speeding communications using all-optical fibers. Pictured with Kakande is Marconi Society Fellow Robert Tkach. (Photo: University of Southampton)

His research aims to develop novel methods for processing high spectral efficiency phase-encoded optical signals at ultrahigh baud rates using nonlinear fiber optic technologies. His research has been published in several journals, including the Nature group, and has led to three patent filings, with more in the pipeline.

His particular interest is in exploring how optical communications can be deployed in the Third World to empower its most deprived people.

Named Best Student at National Level in Uganda, where he was a student at St Mary's College Kisubi, Joseph attained first-class honors in electronic engineering from the University of Hull and is shortly to receive his PhD in optoelectronic engineering from the University of Southampton.

Marconi Society Chairman Emeritus Robert Lucky said that the scholars selection committee "looked for candidates who showed the potential to win the Marconi Prize — the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in communications science — at some point in the future. As a point of reference, Marconi fellows have been at the forefront of every modern advance in telecommunications and the Internet."

The Young Scholar Awards include a financial prize and an invitation and travel funds to attend the annual Marconi Award Dinner.

For more information, visit: www.soton.ac.uk