David Jackson

David Jackson

David Jackson
University of Kent UK

David Jackson was awarded a BSc in Physics and Maths at the University of Southampton and PhD in Nuclear Physics at University of London.

In 1965 he joined the physics laboratory at the University of Kent where his main research interests were in laser light scattering. In 1976 and 1979 he spent sabbatical years at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA.; where he introduced the first closed loop fibre optic sensor.

Subsequently his research activities have been centred in this area where he has introduced many new concepts. He has authored or co-authored over 300 journal and 300 conference papers, plus several chapters in books on fibre optic sensors. He also has several patents. He has successfully supervised more than 40 PhD students and post docs, ten of which have become full Professors. He was Head of the Applied Optics Group Kent before he retired in 2005. He is now Emeritus Professor of Applied optics at the University of Kent where he remains research active.

Research stay at UC3M: DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY

Project: The aim of the project, in collaboration with Professor 'José A. Garcia Souto' is to research and develop a new fibre optic based interrogation system to study the effects of high speed impacts on materials such as carbon fibre composites used in the latest generation of aircraft. To enable the system to be portable a fibre optic topology has been fabricated for the project. A feature of the unit is that it has eight independent sensing channels allowing flexible deployment of sensors at different target locations. A unique feature is that it can support any sensor designed to function in a 'common path' configuration such as a Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor or a Fabry-Perot interferometer configured as a sensor to detect acceleration or vibration. In phase 1) of the project 8 FBG strain sensors will be deployed on a carbon fibre target using a conventional tuneable source interrogation method. In phase 2) we will adapt the system to operate with interferometric interrogation enabling 2-3 orders of magnitude increase in the systems sensitivity.

Stay period: SEP 2013 - FEB 2014