Alastair received his PhD in Physics from the University of Strathclyde in 1995. After his PhD Alastair then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford in the USA before joining NPL in 1997 in the Wavelength Standards group. He then joined the Quantum team in 2006, whereas principal investigator for the quantum communications and microtraps team he is involved in researching the quantum nature of trapped ions and single photons, with applications in quantum information processing and quantum-based communications.
Alastair leads the programme to develop a scalable three-dimensional ion trap for applications in quantum information processing, and our work in the characterisation of quantum communications systems, and in addition as Science Area Lead for the Quantum Information Processing group oversees the research direction of the group as a whole.
Alastair is also a visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He is a regular invited speaker at Conferences and Workshops both in the UK and Internationally.
Areas of Interest
- Ion microtraps for quantum technologies
- Scalability of ion microtraps for quantum metrology
- Metrology of single photons sources and detectors
- Metrology of industrial quantum communications through fibre and free space media
- Metrology and characterization of industrial laser systems