Interview with a director

by our reporter: Cameron Smith
May 07, 2007

The Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) has been in existence for over four years now, after its bid to the Australian Research Council was accepted in December 2002. In that short time with Professor Ben Eggleton at the helm, CUDOS has developed into a world class centre for fundamental and applied photonics research, achieving well beyond all previous expectations. Considering the trend of success that is set to continue, we take a look at the events which led Professor Eggleton to form and lead CUDOS as its Research Director, writes Cameron Smith.

During the several years, 2000 to 2002, before the founding of CUDOS, Professor Eggleton directed a photonics research team at Bell Labs in New Jersey, comprised initially of 12 people before that number grew to 25. In this role Professor Eggleton was responsible for the technology roadmap of a 100 million dollar business unit within Lucent. The research department that he lead had a dual focus: basic research leading to breakthrough optical technologies for next generation optical communication systems and applied research that supported Lucent's business. He maintained an active research program through a number of talented graduate students and continued to publish papers in leading edge topics of holey fibres and tunable grating devices.

"While I was working at Bell Labs I had no intentions of returning home to Australia," said Professor Eggleton. "The most likely possibility at the time was that I would become an academic and remain in the US."

At Bell Labs Professor Eggleton was awarded numerous prizes including the Adolph Lomb Medal from the Optical Society of America (OSA), and numerous product prizes for his invention and development of tunable grating devices. He also was awarded the IEEE LEOS Distinguished Lecturer Award, which included a grant to travel throughout the US and visit LEOS research chapters. In early 2001 the Australian government announced a new fellowship scheme designed to attract world class researchers to Australia. In May, 2001, he was encouraged to apply for a Australian Research Council's (ARC) Federation Fellowship position.

"At the time I was reluctant to apply for this and I almost didn't take it seriously," Professor Eggleton said. "However, with the support of colleagues at the University of Sydney I did submit an application. On September 14, 2001, I got a call from Professor Vicki Sarah, the CEO of the ARC to come to Australia for the press announcement of the first round of ARC Federation Fellowships."

Early 2002 Professor Eggleton was notified that the Australian Government intended to form Centres of Excellence around the vision of Federation Fellows. In May, Professor Eggleton had a dinner with Professor Martjin De Sterke at the CLEO conference in Long Beach, California, where together they formed a constitution for what would be a Sydney-based centre for fundamental and applied photonics research. At the time, this included the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Macquarie University. It was at this initial meeting that the vision was formed to focus on optical devices based on breakthrough concepts in optical physics.

In July, 2002, Professor Eggleton visited Australia again, still working at Bell Labs but evidently keen to pursue the brewing possibility of a research centre in Australia. Here, he contacted the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, meeting both Yuri Kivshar, who had just been awarded an ARC Federation Fellow, and Barry Luther-Davies to include them in the program.

"This is really where we got the momentum going to start the centre," said Professor Eggleton. "In Sydney we had Martjin DeSterke and Ross McPhedran's theory, Lindsay Botton's modelling, Michael Withford's laser expertise and my vision, leadership and experimental experience. Then in Canberra we brought on board Yuri Kivshar who had strengths in fundamental nonlinear optics and Barry Luther-Davies who provided a breakthrough new material: Chalcogenide glass that would be the basis of many of the CUDOS devices. Finally we brought in Professor Min Gu from Swinburne University who provided 3-dimensional structures, which was the missing part of the puzzle. It was at this point that we had established our vision and team to go ahead with the centre."

Back in Bell Labs, New Jersey, business began to slow due to the telecommunications industry burst. "I found myself having to lay off people, very unpleasant. At the time, I was still unsure if I was coming back to Australia - unless the centre came to being." It was around this time that Professor Eggleton recruited Chris Walsh, a former employee of JDS Uniphase, from a phone call in Denver and got him involved. "With Chris on the team we submitted our centre's application in early November, 2002."

Returning again to Canberra for the interview in late November and suffering a bout of Pnemoniua, Professor Eggleton rehearsed his presentation with the team he had formed for the entire preceding week before it was given. In early December the minister for Science, Dr Brendan Nelson, announced the successful Centres of Excellence. Of the twenty-one shortlisted centres vying to be established, only eight were successful in their bid, one of which was CUDOS. The next day, Professor Eggleton resigned from Bell Labs.

After a farewell lunch with former work colleagues, Professor Eggleton took his family, now including wife Susan and two small children on a driving trip across the US, via New Orleans, Los Vegas and Death Valley. In San Fransisco he met a colleague from his Honours year, Dr Michael Steel, an employee of RSOFT Corporation. 6 months later Michael was to return to Australia and join the CUDOS team, still as an employee of Rsoft, bringing extensive experience in theoretical photonics and modelling. Leaving the US on the 30th of December, 2002 and arriving in Australia on the 1st of Janurary, 2003, Professor Eggleton began the significant undertaking of forming the Centre of Excellence.

And the rest, of course, is history.