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Recognition for optical fibre leadership

6 May 2009

Professor Arthur Lowery

Professor Arthur Lowery from the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering has been elected to the grade of IEEE Fellow for his leadership in computer modelling of optical communication systems.

He was recognised for his development and commercialisation of software tools that have been used worldwide to design fibre-optic communications systems.

The IEEE is a non-profit organisation and the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology.

Professor Lowery joins a group of more than 6000, all of whom have contributed to the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology.

Professor Lowery said he was honoured to receive the award.

"Being a Fellow is the culmination of 20 years of work, which began when I was a PhD student trying to simulate semiconductor lasers on a 32-kByte computer," Professor Lowery said.

"At that time British Telecom wanted faster communications systems, not much faster than 1-Gbit per second, though.

"In 1996, I set up a company, Virtual Photonics, which had 50 customers in its first year.

"Our first customer was Fujitsu, our second IBM. Now VPI systems designs broad-band networks around the world, including for British Telecom."

At Monash, Professor Lowery and Professor Jean Armstrong have pioneered optical technology that delivers 100-Gbit/s per fibre wavelength.

This research is being commercialised by a new Australian company, Ofidium, which has recently received $6m funding from Starfish Ventures.

For more information visit Professor Lowery's profile.