Kenneth O. Hill

Last updated
Kenneth O. Hill
KenHill1988.jpg
Hill in 1988
Nationality Canadian
Alma mater McMaster University
AwardsFellowship, Optical Society of America
Manning Principal Award
John Tyndall Award
Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Applied Photonics
Rank Prize in Optoelectronics
Scientific career
Fields Physics, Photonics
Institutions Communications Research Centre
Nu-Wave Photonics/Zenastra Photonics Inc
OZ Optics Limited

Kenneth O. Hill is a Mexican Canadian physicist who specializes in the field of photonics. In the late 1970s, he discovered the phenomena of photosensitivity in optical fiber and has worked extensively in its applications. [1] [2] He first demonstrated Fiber Bragg gratings and their applications in optical communication and optical sensor systems. [3] Further areas of his discovery and innovation include the phase mask technique for grating fabrication, fiber grating dispersion compensators, and wavelength selective fiber filters, multiplexers and demultiplexers. [4] This field of research has led to the ability to create high speed fiber optic networks as well as many other communication applications that have revolutionized the telecommunications industry.

Contents

Early life and education

Hill was born in 1939 in Guadalajara, Mexico. He attended the American elementary school in Guadalajara until high school, whereupon he attended Upper Canada College in Toronto, OntarioCanada. [2] Hill pursued a B.Eng (1963), M.Eng (1965) as well as a Ph.D in Engineering Physics (1968) from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. [4] He is also a Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada. [3]

Career

Upon completing his Ph.D in 1968, Hill worked for the Government of Canada's Defense Research Telecommunications Establishment (DRTE) as a research scientist. [2] [4] [5] Later that year, the DRTE was converted to the Communications Research Centre (CRC). At CRC, he continued as a research scientist before working as a Group leader in Optical Data Storage and Signal Processing (1970–1975), Manager of Optical Communications (1975–1985), Director of Optical Communications (1985–1992) as well as Principal Scientist (1992–2000). [4] [5]

In 2000, Hill left CRC and was appointed to be the Director of Research at Nu-Wave Photonics/Zenastra Photonics Inc, operating in optical circuit and network design and manufacturing. [6] In 2001, Hill joined OZ Optics Limited, a supplier of optical products for optical networks, as a part of their research team. [7]

Awards and honours

In 1991, Hill was elected to Fellowship in the Optical Society of America (OSA) for his efforts pertaining to fused fiber optical couplers, photosensitivity in fibers, novel fiber-based devices and nonlinear effects in fibers. [4] [7] He was the 1995 recipient of the Manning Principal Award for the discovery of photosensitivity in optical fibers as well as the many commercial applications his work led to. [2] [4] [8] At the 1996 Optical Fiber Communications Conference, Hill was awarded the John Tyndall Award sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) and the Optical Society of America. [5] [9] The award was presented for the discovery of photosensitivity in optical fibers and its application to Bragg gratings used in device applications in optical communications and sensor systems." [5] In 1998, Hill was awarded the inaugural Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Applied Photonics from the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and the National Optics Institute (INO). [4] Hill was also awarded the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics in 2002 as one of four scientists recognized for creating and developing Fiber Bragg gratings. [10]

Related Research Articles

The Optical Society American scientific society for optics and photonics

The Optical Society (OSA) is a professional association of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, and organizes conferences and exhibitions. In 2019 it had about 22,000 members in more than 100 countries, including some 300 companies.

Photonic-crystal fiber class of optical fiber based on the properties of photonic crystals

Photonic-crystal fiber (PCF) is a class of optical fiber based on the properties of photonic crystals. It was first explored in 1996 at University of Bath, UK. Because of its ability to confine light in hollow cores or with confinement characteristics not possible in conventional optical fiber, PCF is now finding applications in fiber-optic communications, fiber lasers, nonlinear devices, high-power transmission, highly sensitive gas sensors, and other areas. More specific categories of PCF include photonic-bandgap fiber, holey fiber, hole-assisted fiber, and Bragg fiber. Photonic crystal fibers may be considered a subgroup of a more general class of microstructured optical fibers, where light is guided by structural modifications, and not only by refractive index differences.

Fiber Bragg grating type of distributed Bragg reflector constructed in a short segment of optical fiber

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is a type of distributed Bragg reflector constructed in a short segment of optical fiber that reflects particular wavelengths of light and transmits all others. This is achieved by creating a periodic variation in the refractive index of the fiber core, which generates a wavelength-specific dielectric mirror.Hence a fiber Bragg grating can be used as an inline optical fiber to block certain wavelengths or it can be used as wavelength-specific reflector.

Sir David Neil Payne CBE FRS FREng is a British professor of photonics who is director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton. He has made several contributions in areas of optical fibre communications over the last fifty years and his work has affected telecommunications and laser technology. Payne’s work spans diverse areas of photonics, from telecommunications and optical sensors to nanophotonics and optical materials, including the introduction of the first optical fibre drawing tower in a university.

Plastic optical fiber (POF) or polymer optical fiber is an optical fiber that is made out of polymer. Similar to glass optical fiber, POF transmits light through the core of the fiber. Its chief advantage over the glass product, other aspect being equal, is its robustness under bending and stretching.

Philip St. John Russell, FRS, is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany. His area of research is "photonics and new materials".

A fiber laser is a laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth elements such as erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, thulium and holmium. They are related to doped fiber amplifiers, which provide light amplification without lasing. Fiber nonlinearities, such as stimulated Raman scattering or four-wave mixing can also provide gain and thus serve as gain media for a fiber laser.

Tingye Li

Tingye Li was a Chinese-American scientist in the fields of microwaves, lasers and optical communications. His innovative work at AT&T pioneered the research and application of lightwave communication, and has had a far-reaching impact on information technology for over four decades.

The John Tyndall Award is given to the "individual who has made pioneering, highly significant, or continuing technical or leadership contributions to fiber optics technology". The award is named after John Tyndall (1820-1893), who demonstrated for the first time internal reflection.

Stewart David Personick is an American researcher in telecommunications and computer networking. He worked at Bell Labs, TRW, and Bellcore, researching optical fiber receiver design, propagation in multi-mode optical fibers, time-domain reflectometry, and the end-to-end modeling of fiber-optic communication systems.

Chiral Photonics, Inc. is a photonics company based in Pine Brook, New Jersey, founded in 1999. The company is developing a new class of optical devices based on twisting glass optical fibers. These in-fiber devices aim to displace discrete optical elements such as lasers, filters and sensors. They benefit from optical fiber’s transmission efficiency, robustness and ease of integration.

F. J. Duarte

Francisco Javier "Frank" Duarte is a laser physicist and author/editor of several well-known books on tunable lasers and quantum optics. He introduced the generalized multiple-prism dispersion theory, has discovered various multiple-prism grating oscillator laser configurations, and pioneered polymer-nanoparticle gain media. His contributions have found applications in a variety of fields including astronomical instrumentation, atomic vapor laser isotope separation, geodesics, gravitational lensing, laser medicine, laser microscopy, laser pulse compression, laser spectroscopy, nonlinear optics, and tunable diode lasers.

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 electronics. In the hierarchy of IEEE, the Photonics Society is one of the close to 40 technical societies organized under the IEEE Technical Activities Board.

PHOSFOS

PhoSFOS is a research and technology development project co-funded by the European Commission.

Ben Eggleton

Benjamin John Eggleton FAA, FTSE, FOSA, FIEEE is the Director of The University of Sydney Nano Institute. He also currently serves as Co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN).

Paul Prucnal

Paul R. Prucnal is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. He is best known for his seminal work in Neuromorphic Photonics, optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) and the invention of the terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexor (TOAD). He is currently a fellow of IEEE, Optical Society of America and National Academy of Inventors.

David F. Welch, Ph.D, is an American businessman and research scientist. Welch is a pioneer in the field of optical devices and optical transport systems for telecommunications networks. Welch first made it possible to commercially deploy reliable 980 nm laser pumps, needed in low noise optical amplifiers employed in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) telecommunications systems. He also achieved the first commercial optoelectronics integrated circuit, several years ahead of any competing research or developments laboratory.

Manijeh Razeghi is an Iranian-American scientist in the fields of semiconductors and optoelectronic devices. She is a pioneer in modern epitaxial techniques for semiconductors such as low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), GasMBE, and MOMBE. These techniques have enabled the development of semiconductor devices and quantum structures with higher composition consistency and reliability, leading to major advancement in InP and GaAs based quantum photonics and electronic devices, which were at the core of the late 20th century optical fiber telecommunications and early information technology.

Sophie LaRochelle Canadian engineer and university professor

Sophie LaRochelle is a Canada Research Chair and professor of engineering at the Université Laval. She specializes in developing fiber optic components for signal-processing and data transmission in telecommunication networks.

Satya Prasad Majumder is a Bangladeshi academic. He is the current and the 14th Vice-chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

References

  1. "Photosensitivity Technology Related to the Fabrication of Fibre Bragg Gratings". Communications Research Centre Canada. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mayer, R: Inventing Canada, pages 104-108. Raincoast Books, 1997.
  3. 1 2 "Licensing Fiber Bragg Gratings". Communications Research Centre Canada. Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "1998 CAP-INO Medal". Canadian Association of Physicists. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Kenneth O. Hill 1996 John Tyndall Award Winner". IEEE. Archived from the original on 2002-08-11. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  6. "Nu-Wave Photonics Appoints Kenneth Hill Director of Research". Marketwire. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  7. 1 2 "Dr. Kenneth Hill Joins OZ Optics Limited". OZ Optics. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  8. "Manning Awards - Dr. Kenneth Hill". Manning Innovation Awards. Archived from the original on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  9. "John Tyndall Award Winners". IEEE. Archived from the original on 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2010-06-01.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  10. "Rank Prize in Optoelectronics". Communications Research Centre Canada. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-06-22.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)