Ian Hugh White (born 6 October 1959) is a British engineer. His previous roles include vice-chancellor of the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

of Jesus College, Cambridge, deputy vice chancellor of the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, van Eck Professor of Engineering, and head of the Photonic Research Group, comprising CMMPE, Centre for Photonic Systems, and Photonics and Sensors, in the

Cambridge University Engineering Department The University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering is the largest department at the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of the city centre of Cambridge. The department is currently headed by Professor ...

Biography

Ian White was educated at the

Belfast Royal Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (also known as ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern Ireland ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

, where he gained his BA and PhD degrees in 1980 and 1984. He was then appointed a research fellow and assistant lecturer at the University of Cambridge before becoming professor of physics at the

in 1990. In 1996 he moved to the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

and became head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1998, before returning to the University of Cambridge in October 2001. While in Cambridge he served in the roles of master of Jesus College, head of the School of Technology, and pro-vice-chancellor for institutional affairs. He was a key member of the UK-China Global Issues Dialogue Centre at Cambridge, which was funded by

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

and active in the 2010s. Critics attributed White's involvement with the centre as a contributing factor to Cambridge's silence over the Chinese government's increasing encroachment on academic freedom in the late 2010s. In 2018, White retired from the mastership of Jesus College to become vice-chancellor of the University of Bath. He accepted a salary that was about half of his predecessor's, a move praised by student and staff unions as a positive development in tackling excessive pay gaps in academia. White is a Christian. He is associated with the

Faraday Institute for Science and Religion The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion is an interdisciplinary academic research institute based in Cambridge, England. It is named after the 19th-century English scientist Michael Faraday, the pioneer of electromagnetic induction. It w ...

at Cambridge University and gave a keynote on living a Christian life as an academic scientist in 2018.

Optoelectronic research

Ian White has built up a substantial research activity in the field of

optoelectronics Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radi ...

and

optical communications Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date b ...

and his team numbers approximately 45 people publishing on average 60 papers a year. In terms of research output, the group is one of the largest in the field of optoelectronic systems in the UK. Highlights of his research have included: the development of the first all-optical

laser diode file:Laser diode chip.jpg, The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD or semiconductor laser or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emittin ...

flip-flop, the first negative

chirp A chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (''up-chirp'') or decreases (''down-chirp'') with time. In some sources, the term ''chirp'' is used interchangeably with sweep signal. It is commonly applied to sonar, radar, and laser syste ...

electroabsorption modulator and the invention of a technique for transmitting radio frequency signals over long distances of multimode optical fibre. Several of these advances have already made commercial impact, the offset launch technique for enhancing the bandwidth of optical fibre links having already been adopted within Gigabit Ethernet standard. He chairs the

channel model A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used for infor ...

sub-task force of the IEEE 10 GbE LRM standard. The

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and information technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of Tel ...

has awarded him the Blumlein-Browne-Willans Prize and the Ambrose Fleming Premium Award. White is a Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

and of the

and

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

. He is heavily involved in policy development and administration of research and sits on a number of International Conference Committees. He is a member of the board of governors of the

IEEE Photonics Society The IEEE Photonics Society, formerly the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), is a society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), focused on the scientific and engineering knowledge about the field of quantum e ...

and editor-in-chief of ''

Electronics Letters '' Electronics Letters ''is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published biweekly by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. It specializes in the rapid publication of short communications on all areas of electronic engineering, including op ...

''. He has published over 800 journal and conference papers and 20 patents.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Ian H. People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge Living people 1959 births Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Bath Academics of the University of Bristol Fellows of the Institution of Electrical Engineers Fellows of the IEEE Professors of engineering (Cambridge)