David Spence

I received an MPhys degree (1997) and a DPhil (2001) from Oxford University, UK. Following two years as a Research Assistant in the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford, I moved to Macquarie University in 2004, where I completed an ARC Research fellowship (APDF). I now hold a professorship in the MQ Photonics research centre. My research has covered a wide range of laser and nonlinear optics. Experimental highlights include: working with national-scale PW laser to make XUV lasers; building 25 fs Raman lasers in the IR and the first ultrafast cerium lasers in the UV; building 22 ps Q-switched microchip lasers; and CW single longitudinal mode lasers using Raman-, polariton-, and  Brillouin-scattering. My publications are characterized by a strong link between experiments and supporting theory, using both numerical and analytic modelling, with theory highlights including an invited review of Raman theory, and an analytic theory to model polariton THz lasers. Successful industry translations include a commercialised product with Optos for retinal surgery, and current IP licenses with Jenoptik GmbH and M Squared Lasers Ltd.  

I have supervised 6 completed PhD students and has one current student. Two graduated students are now in high-tech industry (Renishaw, PLC, UK, and Coherent Scotland, UK), one is in a science funding consultancy (forderbar GmbH), one is a postdoc at Capital Normal University, Beijing, and one is at CERN (after a postdoc at MIT and a position of beam scientist at SLAC).