Prof. 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 a 15-person team covering a wide spectrum from blue-sky research to applied instrument development.

In 2001 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2014 the Royal Society, the UK's National Academy. In 2009, with Les Allen, he won the IoP Young Medal, in 2014 the RSE Kelvin Medal in 2015 the Science of Light Prize from the EPS and in 2017 the Max Born Award of the OSA.

The group’s work has led to the fundamental understanding of light's momentum, including conversion of optical tweezers to optical spanners, the use of angular momentum states to extend the alphabet of optical communication, and demonstration of an angular form of the EPR quantum paradox.