Miles Padgett

Miles Padgett holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. He heads an Optics Research Group covering a wide spectrum from blue-sky research to applied commercial development, funded by a combination of government charity and industry.

Miles is a Fellow both of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society, the UK's national academy. In 2008 Miles was awarded the UK Institute of Physics, Optics and Photonics Division Prize. In 2009 Miles was awarded the Institute of Physics, Young Medal "for pioneering work on optical angular momentum". In 2014 he was awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his contributions to optics and his promotion of a global community of researchers. In 2015 he was awarded the Prize for Research into the Science of Light by the European Physical Society and in 2017 the Max Born Award of the OSA.

His research group studies in the field of optics and in particular of optical angular momentum. Their contributions include an optical spanner for spinning micron-sized cells, use of orbital angular momentum to increase the data capacity of communication systems and an angular form of the quantum Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox.

Miles is the Principal Investigator of QuantIC, the UK's Centre of excellence for research, development and innovation in quantum enhanced imaging, bringing together the six Universities with more than 40 industry partners.