Photonics center opens at University of Southampton

The largest photonics and electronics institute in the UK officially opened last month at the University of Southampton in England.

The Zepler Institute will allow more than 300 researchers in photonics, advanced materials and quantum technologies to build on the university’s pioneering discoveries in photonics and electronics for communications. The institute – named for professor Eric Ernest Zepler, a radio receiver development pioneer who founded the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at University College Southampton (now the University of Southampton) in 1947 – will focus on three broad research themes: advanced materials and nanotechnology, electronics and photonics.

It will provide a collaborative environment for research, including biophotonics for point-of-care diagnostics, communications, and fundamental research into quantum devices and technologies, in collaboration with the university’s Physics, Quantum Light and Matter group, the university said.

Professor Sir David Payne, director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre and a fiber optics pioneer who led the team that developed the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, will serve as the institute’s director.