Dr Chris Walsh

Biography

Chris Walsh has over twenty years’ experience in research and research management in academic, government laboratory and industrial environments. After completing his PhD in plasma physics, Walsh worked for five years in Canada on the physics of high power laser interactions with plasmas. Phenomena studied included the nonlinear coupling of high power laser light to electron and ion waves (Raman and Brillouin scattering) with direct measurements of these plasma waves being made by Thomson scattering. At CSIRO he first worked in laser metrology, where he developed frequency stabilized carbon dioxide lasers based on novel waveguide designs and used these to build an absolute distance interferometer. He was appointed Manager of the Optical Technology Program in 1988, a team of about fifty people covering optical fabrication and thin films, optical metrology and length and radiometry standards. As Manager, Walsh’s responsibilities covered budget planning and management, business development, strategic planning and HR issues including hiring, firing and staff promotions. He also retained a research interest through work on optical surface metrology and the leadership of the project to fabricate and test large optics for the LIGO gravitational wave interferometer at Caltech. Walsh has direct expertise in photonics R&D and manufacturing through two years working with JDS Uniphase as the R&D Process Development Manager. In this position he was responsible for a range of areas including fibre Bragg grating product reliability, FBG packaging, grating writing development and fibre evaluation. 

Research Interest

 management