George Hockham: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 12:05, 27 October 2009

New article name is Dr George Alfred Hockham BSc(Eng) PhD FREng FIEE

Biography

Dr George A Hockham (born 7 December 1938 in Epsom, Surrey) received his degrees from London University in 1961 and 1969 respectively. He has worked for over 40 years in theoretical analysis and design techniques applied to the solution of many electromagnetic problems covering many different antenna types for radar, electronic warfare and communication systems.

He has also contributed significantly to the development of optical fibres for long distance communications systems. He proposed and published, together with a colleague Professor K C Kao, in 1966 the original paper on the application of the cladded glass fibre as the transmission medium - Dielectric Fibre Surface Waveguides for Optical Frequencies^[1] - for which he received the Rank Prize in Opto-Electronics in 1978. He is the holder of 16 scientific/technical patents and authored and co-authored 26 papers published in professional journals. He was previously Technical Director of THORN EMI Electronics, Sensors Group, Technical Director in Plessey Radar, Director of Technology Plessey Electronics Systems and Manager of the Antenna and Microwave Laboratory, ITT Gilfillan, Los Angeles, Member of Advisory committees to the MoD and Academia. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London.

Family / hobbies

Married in 1964 to Mary, they have four children, Deborah, David, James and Rachel. Interests have included competitive swimming, racing motorcycles and a keen interest in Formula 1.

Awards / Achievements

Authored and co-authored 26 papers published in professional journals including what is widely reported as the pioneering paper in fibre optics in 1966 the original paper - Dielectric Fibre Surface Waveguides for Optical Frequencies – with Charles Kao.
PhD from University of London (1969)
BSc(Eng) Regents Street, Polytechic Now University of Westminster (1961)
Featured in BBC programme Tomorrows World
Rank Prize for Opto-Electronics 6 March 1978
Visiting Professor Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
Honorary Professor Beijing University of Post & Telecommunications in the field of Microwave and Lightwave Communication (2008)
Featured in Science Museum (London)
Featured in British Genius Exhibition (1977)
Fellow Institution of Electrical Engineers (1987)
Fellow Royal Academy of Engineering (1995)
Holder of 16 scientific / technical patents

Work History

Hockham joined Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (STL) in Harlow following graduation in September 1961 working in the Microwave laboratory under Professor A E Karbowiak. The work here was on Trunk communication systems. During this period with the advent of the LASER there was now available an optical coherent source. By adopting optical frequencies that allowed much higher bandwidth for the transmission of information and the emphasis switched to one of finding a suitable optical waveguide. Several options were considered, the thin film waveguide proposed by Karbowiak which Hockham worked on but had the limitation that the electromagnetic field could not be contained laterally and proved to be of limited use. Another colleague investigated a confocal lens system. This comprised of a periodic array of lenses displaced longitudinally where in theory the light beam was focused periodically. This too proved to be unacceptable as the whole structure had to be contained within a controlled environment eg as soon as the temperature changed along the axis the beam was directed away from the axial direction and the light beam was lost- another failure.

At this time Professor Karbowiak left STL and took up a position at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Charles Kao was transferred into the group and we started looking at other options in particular the fibre.

Hockham started looking at the theoretical aspects in particular the loss due to discontinuities in the fibre and also the loss incurred when the fibre was curved, both were known to affect the performance and needed to be quantified as any one of these could have rendered the fibre approach unacceptable. The single fibre would need to be less than 1 micron in diameter to preserve single mode operation and also most of the energy is carried outside the fibe core to preserve the low loss, this too was a non starter. However, if the core was surrounded by a cladding whose refractive index was close to that of the core a larger structure (in relative terms) could be accommodated. In this case most of the energy is now contained in the core and cladding regions of the fibre thus returning to the high losses. Charles Kao's part of the joint project was to investigate the losses in the glass material to determine if this could be reduced. All parts of the programme were successful leading now to a viable solution of a fibre optic communication system.

References

^ K. C. Kao, G. A. Hockham (1966), "Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies", Proc. IEE 113 (7): 1151–1158

External links

[1] K. C. Kao, G. A. Hockham (1966), "Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies", Proc. IEE 113 (7): 1151–1158

[1]

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 [[Category:Physics stubs]]
+[[Category:British scientists]]
 [[Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard]]