Senior Technical Team
Dr Steve Norman, Chief Technical Officer |
In his role as CTO, Steve has wide ranging responsibilities for the current and future technology platform for the company and is extensively involved with our customers and the Laser community.
Steve Norman has over 30 years experience in advanced optical fibre technology: Trained at Southampton University’s Opto-Electronics Research Centre (ORC) under Professor David Payne, Dr Norman did his early work on the development of MCVD fibre manufacturing technology, before joining the international Pirelli group where he lead the creation of both their specialty fibre and telecom fibre manufacturing operations. Subsequently, he was closely involved in the development of both active and passive photonics technologies, and in the development and introduction of new optical fibre systems for the Access Network.
Steve joined SPI in 2000 as UK Operations Director and was responsible for establishing SPI’s UK operations, in particular, the Hedge End fibre-manufacturing facilities. Steve has played a pivotal role in the development and qualification of the company’s high-power fibre laser products. In 2006 Steve was appointed CTO.
Dr Norman received his Ph D in Optical Fiber Communications Technology, Department of Electronics & Communications, and a BSc with Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southampton. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Professor Mikhail Zervas, Chief Scientist |
As Chief Scientist, Mikhail is a key member of Steve Norman’s team with a special interest in the fundamentals of laser design and performance.
Prior to joining SPI, Mikhail completed a PhD in fiber optics at University College London, and then joined the prestigious Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton in 1991 where in 1999 he was appointed Professor of Optical Communications. To-date, he has filed twenty patents, over one hundred research publications and has received several international awards, including the prestigious Metrology award from the Confederation of British Industry for his work on grating measuring systems for characterizing long chirped fiber gratings. He is on sabbatical leave from the ORC, and continues to be active as a mentor and supervisor for several PhD students.
Don Riddell, Director of Manufacturing
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Don has responsibility for Laser Build and Customer Services. In this role he leads our procurement final assembly and transactional information services for both the supply side and delivery functions of SPI.
Before joining SPI, Riddell was Manufacturing Manager for Assembly and Test of Tunable Lasers with Marconi Optical Components (now Bookham Technology) and also for 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s integrated transmitters. Prior to Marconi, Don spent 11 years with Agilent Technologies (formerly BT&D) with responsibilities for high-reliability submarine pump lasers and EDFA products and latterly was Product Manager for 980nm Submarine Pump Lasers.
Robin Bell, Director of Product Development |
As Product Line Director, Robin is responsible for the complete product lifecycle for pulsed and low power CW lasers sold by SPI. This includes responsibility for product marketing, design, and introduction of new products into manufacture.
In addition Robin leads the Product Support team which has responsibility for customer / partner training and field support activities for the full range of SPI products.Prior to joining SPI, Robin was Director of Optical Packaging for Bookham Technology responsible for the development of an extensive portfolio of packaged optical devices. He also developed a new range of commercial radar systems at Raytheon Marine, and at Marconi was employed as a design engineer on DBS receivers and various military programmes.
Robin received a Bachelor of Science Degree (hons) in Physics, from Leeds University and has over 25 years experience in the field of microwave and optical design.